- Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter mocked President Trump, after he again claimed that an ongoing audit meant he was unwilling to release his tax returns.
- “We didn’t ask you,” tweeted the New York progressive, in response to the president’s claim.
- Hours earlier House Democrats requested six years of the president’s tax returns from the IRS.
- Trump became the first presidential candidate in decades to refuse to release his tax returns in 2016.
Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked President Trump on Twitter Thursday, after he again claimed that he is unwilling to release his tax returns, saying they are under audit.
“We didn’t ask you,” tweeted the freshman representative, who has established a reputation for taking the battle to Republicans on social media.
Her tweet came hours after the House’s Ways and Means Committee formally requested that Trump hand over six years of his personal and business tax returns, under an obscure IRS code.
In 2016 Trump broke with decades of precedent, when he refused to release his tax returns, claiming that they were under audit from tax officials.
Only one other president has refused to disclose the information, with Gerald Ford in 1976 releasing tax summary data, but not full returns.
Congress: “We’re going to need a copy of the President’s tax returns from 2013-2018.”
45: “No, I’m ‘under audit.’ ”
Congress: “We didn’t ask you.”
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 3, 2019
And on Wednesday when asked by reporters if he planned to release the returns Trump again declined to and claimed that they remained under audit.
"Now, we're under audit, despite what people said," Trump remarked. "We're working that out as - I'm always under audit it seems. But I've been under audit because the numbers are big and I guess when you have a name you're audited. But until such time as I'm not under audit I would not be inclined to do that."
The IRS has said there are no rules preventing an individual sharing information on their tax while they are under audit.
In her tweets, Ocasio-Cortez mockingly reenacted the exchange between House Democrats and the president.
"Congress: 'We're going to need a copy of the President's tax returns from 2013-2018,'" she wrote.
"No, I'm 'under audit,'" she then wrote, paraphrasing the president.
"We didn't ask you,"she wrote in reply to the president.
