Bill Kristol Quotes

You've got to ask yourself, why won't Donald Trump release his tax returns? I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be. Third, we don't know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn't want the American people to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes.

For 40 years, everyone running for president has released their tax returns. You can go and see nearly, I think, 39, 40 years of our tax returns, but everyone has done it.

If you look at what these politicians do when they speak, most of the time they are trying to convey a tone... if I make all these points and move my hands this way, I can get re-elected. When in reality, they aren't saying anything.

It just seems to me that this is something that the American people deserve to see. And I have no reason to believe that [Donald Trump] is ever going to release his tax returns, because there's something he's hiding.

You may have heard that Donald Trum has long refused to release his tax returns, the way every other nominee for president has done for decades. You can look at 40 years of my tax returns. I think we need a law that says, if you become the nominee of the major parties, you have to release your tax returns.

If you're a Republican politician and you're seeing this guy [Donald Trump] saying crazy stuff and going up in the polls, what are you going to say, you're going to say equally crazy or maybe a little less crazy stuff.

I do think Hillary Clinton should have pivoted and say, I am change, I am change, because people do want some change.

We have full disclosure in transparency of our audited, our financial audits. It's on our Web site. It is, I think 16 or 20- something pages, which most public companies or private companies and most ministries don't disclose. So we have always operated with financial integrity and full transparency.

I think that when you saw Donald Trump absolutely calling Hillary Clinton crooked, the "lock her up, lock her up," all of that was developed. I think that was developed strategically with people from the Kremlin, with Vladimir Putin.

I think if Donald Trump skipped out on a debate, for whatever reason he gave, I don't think it would help him at all.

If Hillary can't win the nomination - and it's clearly very, very hard for her - she's basically a stalking horse for McCain. She's preparing the demographic ground for McCain, by getting white working-class Democrats used to (if you will) not voting for Obama.

People feel the deck is being totally stacked against them, and the Democrats have various things in their playbook to go after opponents; taxes is one of them.

Mitt Romney was treated very unfairly. Mitt Romney didn't want to give his tax returns, because people don't understand returns that are complicated, and complex. And he didn't give it. He fought it, fought it, fought it, all the way into September. A month before the election, he gave his tax returns. And they picked out two items that were absolutely perfect. He did nothing wrong. And his returns are very much smaller than my returns.

I don't think [Mitt] Romney can sit there and wait to win because perhaps people are disappointed with President [Barack] Obama.

John Kerry says that he wants to debate President Bush once a month until the election. This could be a risky move for Senator Kerry. If Bush doesn't show up for the debates, John Kerry may end up debating an empty chair. And that could be pretty much a toss up as to which one has the better personality.

I think Australians are more interested in what I am doing with their money than what I am doing with my own.

Look at Jeb Bush, $115 million and Jeb actually stated in December 2014 that he was going to win this primary by not winning it. He was going to win it without winning base voters. They have made it clear they want nothing of their base. They're embarrassed of their base.

Democrats, if they're smart and they're not brain-dead, are doing two things right now.They're having self-deprecating humor written for them. There was no humor in Cleveland. And they are not making this a Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton doesn't know how to counterprogram Trump, if you will. Hillary doesn't know how to go out and write her own narrative of the day. Hillary doesn't know whether to focus on herself or to criticize Trump or to go after Crazy Bernie. She doesn't know what to do. And the press doesn't, either.

Donald Trump has defied practically every playbook or blue book technique in dispatching an opponent.

I think you'll have plenty of scrutiny as how the money's invested. I mean, just like the RFC. When the RFC operated, people knew which institutions they were buying preferred stock in. And it worked very well.

The problem is I think Howie is exactly right, is that Donald Trump would rather be at the center of a media controversy in a negative way than allow the limelight to move to Hillary Clinton and let her actually take heat in the public - in a public arena. And it just sucks up all of the oxygen.

The media cannot come separate [Donald] Trump from his supporters. Only Trump can do that. They're trying, they're gonna keep trying because they think they can. They did it with [George W.]Bush. They did it with [Mitt] Romney. They did it with [John] McCain. They did it with Bob Dole.

Actually, I think we all understand just fine why Donald Trump is president: because he ran a racist, boorish, epically mendacious campaign and Republicans all decided to go along with it. And even that wouldn’t have been enough if Trump hadn’t gotten some additional help from his pals James Comey and Vladimir Putin.

Every presidential candidate for decades has released his tax returns, and I've released 33 years of my tax returns. The American people deserve to know about our taxes. And so Donald Trump is standing in the way of precedent that goes back on both sides of aisle Democrats and Republicans, and he clearly has something that he doesn't want us to see.