IDES OF MADDOW
TRUMP PAID HIGHER TAX RATE [25%] THAN MSNBC COMCAST [24%]... MUCH HIGHER THAN OBAMA [19%]... AND BERNIE [13%]!
$38M ON $150M...
CNBC TURNS ON SISTER NETWORK...
RACHEL VEERS OFF COURSE...
QUEST FOR RATINGS...
Was Rachel Maddow's Trump tax scoop a big nothingburger?
By Tim Morris
MSNBC
host Rachel Maddow sent the media world into a tizzy Tuesday evening (March 14)
with a tweet announcing, "We've got Trump tax returns." The actual
details of the documents did not quite match the hype. (Screenshot)
MSNBC host Rachel
Maddow sent the media world into a tizzy Tuesday evening (March 14) with a
tweet announcing, "We've got Trump tax returns."
Had the liberal
Maddow, whose ratings have been on the rise since Donald Trump was elected
president, hit the jackpot? Was she going to produce revelations connecting
Trump to foreign investments in Russia? Would she expose the fact that the
billionaire didn't pay taxes? Could she prove that he wasn't a billionaire at
all?
The fact that it would
be more than an hour before she actually unveiled her
findings -- or more accurately the findings of Pulitzer Prize-winning
investigative reporter David Cay Johnston -- was the first tip-off that
there may be less to the big scoop than first thought.
-----
BREAKING: We've got Trump tax returns.
Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC.
(Seriously).
---(Seriously).
A
little later, she would tweet that, "What we've got is from 2005... the
President's 1040 form..." with another tease to wait for her show.
In
the meantime, the White House released a pre-emptive statement that detailed
Trump's tax figures from 2005 before MSNBC had a chance to air its report.
The
bottom line: Trump paid $38 million in federal taxes in 2005 on income of $153
million and reported a $105 million write-down in business losses.
That
was pretty much it. No new details. No smoking gun. No evidence of nefarious
dealings or accounting shenanigans.
The
Washington Post succinctly noted: "In short: We didn't learn anything
we don't already know about Trump. Yes, he is very wealthy. Yes, he -- like
virtually all very wealthy people -- looks for holes in the tax code to lower
his overall taxable income."
In
fact, the release may have even helped Trump. The president, who unlike all
other presidents going back to Richard Nixon has refused to release his tax
returns, has admitted that he and his accountants tried to take advantage of
every loophole available to keep his tax payments down. This return did nothing
to suggest otherwise.
On
the other hand, The New York Times and others had speculated that Trump "could
have avoided taxes for nearly two decades" based on an analysis of his
1995 return. That was a story the Times touted early in October as Democrats
pushed to make a campaign issue out of Trump's refusal to release his records.
Oops.
The
New York Times noted that "discussion between Ms. Maddow and Mr. Johnston
veered into some odd directions, with Mr. Johnston mentioning a connection
between Mr. Trump and the mob. And Ms. Maddow's opening monologue raised
lingering questions about links between Mr. Trump and Russia -- questions that
no simple 1040 form, like the one sent to Mr. Johnston, could address.
"It
was not until the end of the program that Ms. Maddow invited on an NBC News
political reporter, Hallie Jackson, who dialed in by telephone for a more sober
analysis of the tax findings. By then, Ms. Maddow's show was about to
end."
The
lack of damning evidence prompted Johnston, who said he has no idea who leaked
the two-page document to him, to speculate that it could even have been the
president himself. "It's entirely possible Donald sent this to me, he
said. "With Donald you never know."
Tim
Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be
reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.
