Clinton tears into Trump on taxes

Hillary Clinton tore into Donald Trump's tax history, business acumen and trustworthiness Monday as she sought to capitalize on news that the New York real estate mogul may not have paid federal taxes for years — one of several revelations that rattled the Republican presidential candidate's campaign.

Campaigning at a downtown Toledo train station, Clinton cast Trump as a cold-hearted and bungling businessman who "represents the same rigged system that he claims he's going to change." She called for a new law requiring presidential candidates from major parties to release their tax returns, something Trump has refused to do, and she accused Trump of shirking his responsibility as a taxpayer.

"He's taken corporate excess and made a business model out of it," she said. "It's Trump first and everyone else last."The Democrat's broadside was her first response to a weekend New York Times report that Trump claimed a loss of nearly $916 million in a single year on his personal income taxes.

The Times said the size of the loss could have allowed Trump to avoid owing federal taxes for nearly two decades, an assertion his campaign neither confirmed nor disputed.

Trump made no reference to the tax trouble at an event with veterans in Virginia Monday, but at a later event he said he had paid as little taxes "as legally possible" as was his duty as the head of a major real estate company.

He also dispatched several surrogates to mount his defense. His allies noted the Times report did not allege wrongdoing and they contended the Republican presidential candidate was a "genius" for using the tax system to rebuild his fortune.

The Clinton campaign seized on the comment with a new TV ad, asking "If not paying taxes makes him smart, what does that make the rest of us?"

In her remarks, a lengthy outline of her economic principles, Clinton mocked: "What kind of genius loses a billion dollars in a single year?"
Other Trump troubles mounted. Former cast and crew members from the reality TV show "The Apprentice" described for the first time his treatment of women on the set.