Exclusive: Donald Trump Says 'People Don't Care' About Tax Returns

Running mate Mike Pence said that the calls to release them are a "distraction."

ByABC News
September 5, 2016, 9:05 PM

— -- In an exclusive sit down with ABC News’ David Muir, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that people don’t care about whether he should release his taxes, while Gov. Mike Pence argued that the calls to release them are a “distraction" from Hillary Clinton.

“I think people don't care,” Trump said Monday afternoon in Ohio of his tax returns, which he has not released. “I don't think anybody cares, except some members of the press.”

Trump said he’s provided the “most extensive financial review of anybody in the history of politics” and because he’s under a “routine audit,” he’s not able to make his tax returns public.

Both Trump and Pence said that their tax returns would be released.

To catch David Muir's interview with Donald Trump and Mike Pence, watch "Good Morning America" at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

“We’ll release all the information on our tax records, Donald Trump will release his tax returns when his audit is done,” Pence said. “But I believe this is all a distraction by many in the media who simply don’t want to focus on this widening scandal around the Clinton Foundation and this pay-to-play program that happened during Hillary Clinton’s years as secretary of state.”

Pence also touted that his tax returns would be a "pretty quick read."

"I’m very pleased to provide our tax returns," Pence said. "You’re going to find out my family’s a middle-class family and that there will be pretty clear evidence that we haven’t profited from our 16 years in and around public life."

“When the audit is done, I’ll release them. I don't know when that's gonna be, it could be soon, it could be not,” Trump said, echoing his VP pick.

Pence also argued that the attacks against Trump were unprecedented.

“I have never seen in my lifetime, in and around politics, the level of media attacks on a public figure, the likes of which I’ve seen on my running mate,” Pence said.

Trump did file a personal financial disclosure form with the Federal Election Commission back in May, showing his personal assets, investments and income. But this is an annual report required of all candidates running for president.

Last month, Pence also filed federal financial disclosure forms, which revealed his income as being over $170,000.

A Monmouth University poll released at the end of August showed that 31 percent of voters think it’s very important that a candidate release his or her taxes, while 36 percent think it’s not important. Fifty-two percent of voters polled said Trump is withholding his tax returns because there's something he doesn’t want the public to know. Twenty-four percent think Trump is keeping his tax returns private because his taxes under audit.

If Trump doesn’t release his tax returns, he’ll be the first presumptive major party nominee since 1976 not to do so.

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