Lost amidst Kellyanne Conway's assault on the concept of facts this weekend was her remarkable new line when it comes to President Trump's tax returns. Conway finally cut to the chase, declaring unequivocally that Trump simply will not release his returns because nobody cares.

"The White House response is that he's not going to release his tax returns," Conway told NBC News. "We litigated this all through the election. People didn't care. They voted for him. And let me make this very clear. Most Americans are very focused on what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office, not what his look like."

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(Conway took to Twitter this morning to reintroduce the audit excuse. To be clear, this excuse is not valid—Trump could release the returns while they're under audit.)

As The Washington Post's Philip Bump pointed out, this is not the case. Donald Trump's victory did not prove voters didn't care about his tax returns, because a vote for a candidate is not an endorsement of every specific position they hold. (Also, nearly 3 million more Americans voted for his opponent.) This seems particularly true given that after the election, 60 percent of Americans still think Trump should release his tax returns, including a majority of independents.

The reason for this is for the public to get a better idea of the financial relationships that Trump brings to the Oval Office, particularly with foreign entities and creditors. Every major party candidate since Watergate has released their taxes during the campaign so that the public is aware of conflicts of interest that could arise during his or her presidency. As the former head honcho at a tremendously huge company, Trump could have entanglements that affect his decision making in significant ways.

Trump and his surrogates' excuses for avoiding this basic responsibility of modern presidential politics hasn't always been so direct as Conway's was this past weekend, though. Let's hop in the DeLorean and see what they used to say about tax returns.

January 18, 2012: Trump told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that then-Republican candidate Mitt Romney should release his tax returns.

May 20, 2014: Trump said in an interview on Irish TV that he would "absolutely" release his tax returns if he decided to run for office:

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February 25, 2015: Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt: "I would release tax returns," because, after all, "Nobody knows the tax return world better than me."

October 4, 2015: Trump said on This Week that he would release the returns when "we find out the true story on Hillary's emails."

January 24, 2016: Trump told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that he would release the returns. When asked about the delay, he cited their size.

Well, we're working on that now. I have very big returns, as you know, and I have everything all approved and very beautiful and we'll be working that over in the next period of time, Chuck. Absolutely...This is not, like, a normal tax return.

February 10, 2016: Trump pledged to Matt Lauer to release them "probably over the next few months."

February 25, 2016: Trump introduced the audit argument after Mitt Romney challenged him to release his returns, and appeared to hint there was an IRS conspiracy against him. From Politico:

"As far as my return, I want to file it except for many years, I've been audited every year. Twelve years or something like that. Every year they audit me, audit me, audit me. I have friends that are very wealthy people" who never get audited, he said..."I will absolutely give my return but I'm being audited now for two or three [years' worth] now so I can't."

Fact-checkers, tax experts, and the IRS have repeatedly made it clear that there is no legal reason a person under audit could not release their tax returns. In fact, President Nixon—that paragon of virtue—released his tax returns while they were under audit.

March 30, 2016: The Trump campaign released a letter from his accountants attesting to the fact his tax returns since 2009 are under review by the IRS. They indicate this has been a regular occurrence since 2002 because of the complexity of his holdings—namely, the byzantine structure of the Trump Organization.

May 5, 2016: Trump said he also can't release his returns from 2002-2008, or from 1977-2002—all of which his accountants say are not under audit—because "they're all linked."

May 11, 2016: Trump said he didn't expect to release his returns before the November election, again citing the audit. He also claimed there's "nothing to learn from them."

May 13, 2016: Trump told George Stephanopoulos his tax rate is "none of your business" and that he "fight[s] very hard to pay as little tax as possible."

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WATCH: "It's none of your business, you'll see it when I release." - @realDonaldTrump on what his tax rate is... https://t.co/cdVHOF1hFV — Good Morning America (@GMA) May 13, 2016

July 27, 2016: Then-campaign chair Paul Manafort continued the audit line: "Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them."

July 28, 2016: Trump to Van Susteren: "I haven't had much pressure (to release tax returns). I'll be honest, most people don't care."

This was obviously false.

September 7, 2016: "When the audit is complete I will release my returns," Trump told Bill O'Reilly. "I have no problem with it. It doesn't matter." O'Reilly reminded him he could release while under audit, and Trump said, "Nobody would recommend that."

September 26, 2016: At a presidential debate, Trump promised: "I will release my tax returns, against my lawyer's wishes, when [Clinton] releases her 33,000 emails that have been deleted."

January 11, 2017: In his first press conference as president-elect, Trump claimed "you learn very little" from tax returns and that "the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters." (Again, this is false.) "I'm not releasing the tax returns because as you know, they're under audit."

January 22, 2017: Conway claimed the White House's position is it will not release the returns because nobody cares.

January 23, 2017: Conway returned to the audit excuse in a tweet:

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On taxes, answers (& repeated questions) are same from campaign: POTUS is under audit and will not release until that is completed. #nonews — Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) January 23, 2017

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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