Conway: Trump has paid 'hundreds of millions' in taxes

Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday that her boss has “paid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes over decades,” pushing back against reports that the Manhattan billionaire could have used provisions in the tax code to avoid paying federal income tax for up to 18 years.

“You look around New York, and other cities, but particularly here, and you see the fruits of Donald Trump’s business acumen,” Conway said on “CBS This Morning.” “But The fact is, this man has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes over decades. Excise taxes, federal payroll taxes, city, state and local taxes real estate taxes, property taxes.”


“You didn’t say income taxes,” anchor Norah O’Donnell interjected.

“Well he certainly has, in years that he made a profit, like anybody else, he paid income taxes,” Conway replied.

Trump’s history of paying, or not paying, resurfaced over the weekend when the New York Times published three pages of the real estate mogul’s 1995 tax return that the newspaper had received anonymously. Those pages showed Trump reported a $916 million loss in 1995, a figure large enough that it would have allowed him to avoid paying anything in federal income taxes in the three previous years and 15 subsequent years.

Trump has not denied the New York Times report and has stubbornly refused to release his tax returns, something every presidential candidate has done since Richard Nixon in 1972.

Asked on Tuesday how Trump managed to lose nearly $1 billion in 1995, Conway said “well, we don’t know that,” but added that the real estate market struggled in 1995.

Later Tuesday morning, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook said Trump's campaign has grown panicked in recent days, at least in part thanks to the renewed attention being paid to the candidate's tax history. In his own "CBS This Morning" interview, Mook said he's curious if Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, would defend the GOP nominee for "the fact that he’s proud that he didn’t pay taxes for nearly two decades?"

Conway said that viewers of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate should expect a “fiery” performance from Pence. She said Trump’s running mate will defend the Republican nominee but also go on the offensive against Hillary Clinton.

“He'll go out there in a fiery performance, especially for somebody who’s known as so low-key, doing the job of the vice presidential nominee, which is to hold to account the other party’s nominee,” she said. “People look at Mike Pence, Norah, as very low-key, and he is. He’s a perfect gentleman, I’ve worked with him for years and years. But at the same time, he’s there to play.”