Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 2020 presidential candidate who has long resisted releasing his tax returns, told CBS News Tuesday that he would make them publicly available by April 15, the day tax forms are due.
“We wanted to do 10 years. We wanted to include the latest returns,” Sanders told CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe, indicating that he will publicly release his tax returns from 2008 through 2018.
“There isn’t something in those returns that’s going to make your supporters unhappy, is there?” O’Keefe asked.
“Yeah, my trillions of dollars’ investment in Saudi Arabia, you got it, Ed! Right here on CBS! No, I don’t think so,” Sanders joked. However, he said that he had “made money” because he wrote a best-selling book, “Our Revolution,” after the 2016 election.
“I make what a United States senator makes. I wrote two books in recent years. One of those books was a bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list translated into five or six languages. It did very well. I made money on that book,” Sanders said, adding that there are no “great revelations” to be found.
Some Democrats have criticized Sanders for not releasing his tax returns. Presidential candidates such as Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar, along with Gov. Jay Inslee, have all released their returns.
Sanders, who is known for railing against the extra wealthy, told The New York Times Tuesday that he is a millionaire.
“I wrote a best-selling book,” he told the Times. “If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”
In his interview with O’Keefe, Sanders primarily spoke about his plan to reintroduce his signature “Medicare for All” plan, which would expand government health coverage to every American, on Wednesday. Sanders said he disagreed with estimates indicating that the plan would cost tens of trillions of dollars to implement.
“We are spending twice as much per capita as any other nation,” Sanders said about the current health care system. “What our system does is get rid of insurance companies and drug companies making billions of dollars in profit every single year.”
Sanders said that Medicare for All would cover “all basic health needs,” but not anything cosmetic.
“So basically Blue Cross Blue Shield would be reduced to nose jobs?” O’Keefe asked.
“Something like that,” Sanders said.
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