Hillary Clinton and ‘real billionaire’ Warren Buffett fact check Trump’s tax claims
Hillary Clinton brushed off Donald Trump’s attacks and doubled down on her own at her first post-debate rally on Monday, using a “real billionaire” to counter the Republican’s claims about his own taxes.
Clinton told a crowd of more than 3,000 supporters in Detroit that each of them had probably paid more in federal income taxes than Trump.
She cited Warren Buffett’s new statement that he has paid federal income taxes every year since 1944, and was prepared to release all 72 years of his returns — none of which use a loophole that Trump employed to avoid paying taxes by writing off nearly a billion dollars in losses.
“It does take a certain amount of genius to lose a billion dollars in a single year,” Clinton said.
Buffett released the statement after Trump defended his move and claimed that many of Clinton’s friends “took bigger deductions. Warren Buffett took a massive deduction.”
It does take a certain amount of genius to lose a billion dollars in a single year
“If you’re going to call out Warren Buffett, you better be prepared for him telling some good, old-fashioned, honest Nebraska facts,” Clinton said. Buffett is from Omaha.
Clinton and her team seemed confident that she enhanced her standing after Sunday’s caustic second debate.
“You never saw anything like that before,” she said as she began her remarks.
She did not address Trump’s charges about her husband’s infidelity and her role in responding to women who accused him of sexual assault. But she did plead with supporters, particularly younger voters, not to let the negativity of the race make them cynical about politics.
“That’s what the other side wants you to feel,” she said. “They want you to just say, ‘I’m not going to vote because it’s so nasty.’ That’s the main reason to vote, to make it clear that we’re not putting up with that kind of attitude.”
Clinton said she hoped young people would represent the biggest voting group in the election.
“I know that it is sometimes a little bit challenging to figure out what is going on. Who should I believe? What do I need to know?” she said. “Trust your heart. Because if we work together, we can make this country what we know it will be and should be.”
