VIDEOTexas Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday upped the pressure on Donald Trump, his main rival for the GOP presidential nomination, to release his past taxes – even hinting that he might not be doing so to hide mafia connections.
"There have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia," Cruz said on ABC's "This Week." "Now maybe his tax returns show that those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported."
Cruz noted that ABC News had been one of the media outlets to report Trump has done business with S&A Concrete to build Trump Tower in Manhattan.
The company is "owned by two of the big crime families in New York," Cruz said. "Maybe that's what his tax returns show. We don't know. But the important point is, George in the general election, Hillary Clinton is going to shine a light on all of this. And Republican primary voters deserve to know."
Cruz said Trump's returns might also show he is a big donor to liberal causes, such as Planned Parenthood, which Trump has touted in recent debates as doing good work for women's health, though he admitted he disagreed with the group performing abortions.
"At every debate, it seems, he praises Planned Parenthood. Maybe he's written them a bunch of checks," Cruz said.
Both Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio have released summaries of their own past tax returns in an effort to shed light on Trump's refusal to do so himself. Trump said his taxes are complicated and that he can't release them while he is under audit by the IRS.
He told CNN's Chris Cuomo after Thursday's debate he might have been targeted because he is a "strong Christian."
Nobody who heard that statement had "any reaction other than laughter," Cruz said on "This Week." "He needs to release his tax information, and the fact that he's refusing to do so really suggests as Mitt Romney pointed out, that there may be a bombshell in there. There's something he's hiding."
