Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday strongly denied claims by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that he had not paid his taxes for several years in a row. Romney, speaking in front of supporters at McCandless Trucking in North Las Vegas, Nev., answered press questions about Reid's remarks, saying that he had "paid taxes every year -- a lot of taxes," and that Reid needed "to put up or shut up" regarding the sources behind his claims, as quoted by the Washington Post.
Romney has been under increased pressure from Reid and other prominent Democrats to release more of his tax returns. So far, he has only released returns dating back to 2010. On Friday, he repeated what his aides had already previously stated, that there had been no gaps or periods of time where he did not pay his taxes.
Here is some of the key information to come out of Romney's statements on Friday, as well as the ongoing debate over his tax returns.
* Democrats -- and some Republicans -- have been pressuring Romney for months to release his tax returns prior to 2010, although the stated reasoning behind each side's request has differed.
* Friday's comments by Romney stemmed from a statement by Reid the day before, where he told the media that "I was told by an extremely credible source that Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years," as quoted by the New York Times. Reid had originally made the same claims during an interview earlier in the week.
* Romney, in taking issue with Reid's claims during his appearance in North Las Vegas on Friday, said that Reid is making his assertions in order to distract from the latest report on U.S. unemployment. The national unemployment rate rose slightly to 8.3 percent over the last month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
* Romney was promoting his five-point economic plan to supporters on Friday, and said that the latest job report was a "hammer blow to struggling middle-class families," as quoted by CNN.
