By John Wagner
The Washington Post
TAMPA, Fla. — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday urged Donald Trump to “come clean” about his finances and said she would continue to press the Republican to release his tax returns until Election Day, declaring that “he clearly has something to hide.”
Speaking to reporters aboard her campaign plane, Clinton said she was responding to a statement Trump made to ABC News that people aren’t interested in his returns.
“I just think he’s dead wrong,” Clinton said while en route to a campaign rally here.
She ticked off a list of what she characterized as questionable aspects about Trump’s finances, including the multiple times his companies have declared bankruptcy, repeated accusations of “fraudulent behavior,” hundreds of millions of dollars in business debt and continuing controversy over Trump University.
“Clearly his tax returns tell a story that the American people deserve and need to know,” Clinton said. “I’m going to continue to raise this, because I think it is a fundamental issue about him in this campaign that we’re going to talk about in one way or another for the next 62 days, because he clearly has something to hide. We don’t know exactly what it is, but we’re getting better guesses about what it probably is. If he’s going to pursue this campaign, he owes it to the American people to come clean.”
Clinton, who has had a standoffish relationship with the traveling press that covers her, spoke to reporters aboard her new campaign plane Tuesday for the second day in a row.
During the conversation, which lasted more than 20 minutes, she declined to say whether she thinks Libertarian Gary Johnson should be allowed to participate in her debates with Trump, saying that the rules were set by a nonpartisan commission.
And Clinton said she would not discuss until after the election any further changes in the structure of the Clinton Foundation, including whether her daughter, Chelsea, should remain on the board if Clinton wins the White House.
Clinton also told reporters that she has “upped my antihistamine” after a couple of prolonged coughing episodes on Monday, including one that took place at the outset of her remarks at a Labor Day celebration in Cleveland.
Clinton on Monday attributed the coughing to “seasonal allergies” and said Tuesday that she is doing better.
“Now the advice, of course, is just don’t talk for a day or two,” Clinton said, adding that that scenario is not going to happen.
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