Billionaire investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett attacked Donald Trump on Monday during a Hillary Clinton rally in Omaha, Nebraska.
Buffett, in his endorsement speech for Clinton, challenged Trump to release his tax returns:
“I’d like to make him an offer, an offer I hope he can’t refuse.
He says various things at different times, but at one point, and I think he said it several times, is that he can’t do it, he can’t release it because he’s under audit.
I’ve got news for him: I’m under audit, too. And I would be delighted to meet him any place, any time between now and election. I’ll bring my tax return. He can bring his tax return. Nobody is going to arrest us. There are no rules against showing your tax returns and just let people ask questions about the items that are on there.
You’re only afraid if you’ve got something to be afraid about.”
No major presidential candidate in the past four decades has refused to release their tax returns. But Donald Trump is no normal candidate. For example, a normal candidate would not slander a Gold Star family whose son died saving the lives of his fellow American soldiers.
Warren Buffett said that this attack on the Muslim-American Khan family was the “last straw,” a sentiment echoed by even some Republicans, such as Rep. Richard Hanna and former top Chris Christie aide Maria Comella, who both endorsed Hillary Clinton today.
Buffett criticized Trump for claiming that “work[ing] very, very hard” and “creat[ing] thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs” counts as a sacrifice, comparable to that of the Khan family. Buffett said that he himself, and other wealthy families who have had it easy, have not made actual sacrifices, regardless of how many people they employed.
“How in the world can you stand up to a couple of parents who lost a son and talk about sacrificing because you were building a bunch of buildings?”
Warren Buffett also raised the question credited with ending the career of anti-communist demagogue Joe McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
