Reid called liar over claim Romney didn’t pay taxes

WASHINGTON - Top Republicans on Sunday accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of lying by saying Mitt Romney hasn't paid taxes for 10 years.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Reid a "dirty liar" for leveling the accusations against Romney, the GOP presidential candidate, and Sen. Lindsey Graham said Reid was "making things up."

"I just cannot believe that the majority leader of the United States would take the floor twice, make accusations that are absolutely unfounded in my view and, quite frankly, making things up to divert the campaign away from the real issues," Graham, R-S.C., said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Republicans and Democrats spent much of the Sunday talk shows sparring over Reid's claims about Romney's taxes - accusations the former Massachusetts governor has denied.

Democratic President Barack Obama's advisers and supporters have pressed Romney to release his tax returns in the wake of Reid's claims. Romney has challenged Reid to "put up or shut up" and reveal his source for the claim.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, made the allegations in a Senate floor speech last week. He said he had learned of the claim about Romney's taxes from an investor in Romney's former private equity firm, Bain Capital. But the lawmaker, who has a history of making incendiary statements about Republicans, hasn't offered any evidence to back it up and even has said he's not sure it's true.

Reid's office repeated the claim in an email Sunday. The email, from spokesman Adam Jentleson, said the information came from "an extremely credible source" and called it "sad" that Republicans were being forced to defend Romney's decision not to release more tax returns.

Romney, who has disclosed that he's worth as much as $250 million, has said that Reid's claim isn't true and that he's paid "a lot of taxes."

The candidate has released one year of personal income tax returns: His 2010 federal tax return shows he paid 13.9 percent tax on income of $21.6 million. Most of his income came from investment gains, which are taxed at a lower rate than earned income.

Romney has rejected calls by Democrats and some within his own party to disclose more of his tax returns, saying his critics would distort the information and use it against him.

He has promised to release his 2011 returns when accountants are finished with them.

Democrats have tried to make Romney's personal wealth and how he's managed it a key issue in the presidential contest. Romney, who would be among the richest presidents ever elected, is aggressively competing with Obama for the support of middle-class voters.

Priebus, speaking on ABC's "This Week," contrasted Reid's allegations relating to Romney's wealth with Reid's own lifestyle as a resident of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, where he lives.

"As far as Harry Reid is concerned, listen ... I'm not going to respond to a dirty liar who hasn't filed a single page of tax returns himself. Complains about people with money but lives in the Ritz-Carlton here down the street," Priebus said. "This is just a made-up issue. And the fact that we're going to spend any time talking about it is ridiculous."

Jentleson struck back, saying, "Republicans can try to cover up for Mitt Romney's stonewalling all they want, but this issue is not going away until Romney decides to be straight with the American people and release his tax returns."

Other Democrats also pressed Romney to provide more tax information.

David Axelrod, an Obama campaign strategist, said on "Fox News Sunday" that he didn't "know who Harry was talking to" but that Romney "can resolve this in 10 seconds."

"Why don't they just put this to rest? What is it he's hiding?" Axelrod said.

Democratic National Committee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, also appearing on "This Week," echoed that theme, declining to criticize Reid and saying Romney is at fault for the confusion over his wealth.

"He could clear it up just like that, lickety-split, by releasing his tax returns, which every major candidate for president of the United States has done except for Mitt Romney," she said.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Reid had made a "reckless and slanderous charge."

"People don't care about Mitt Romney's tax returns," McDonnell said. "They care about their own tax returns."

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, said on "Face the Nation" that, while voters want to know whether presidential candidates "pay their taxes fairly like everybody else," Romney's tax returns are "not a central issue" in a campaign that has focused on the economy.