Responding to concerns raised on Monday’s NBC Today that Donald Trump tax documents obtained by The New York Times may have been leaked illegally to the paper, political analyst Nicolle Wallace acknowledged the possibility but advised the Republican nominee’s campaign to move on or risk having Trump look guilty.
Co-host Savannah Guthrie observed: “By the way, whoever leaked them, I mean, potentially that's a criminal issue to leak – not The New York Times to receive it necessarily, but for someone to actually have sent it.” Wallace proceeded to dismiss the potential criminality: “And that’s the case the Trump camp would make. I would warn the Trump campaign, though, that if they spend too much time arguing about how they got out it looks like they're trying to hide something...”
Earlier in the discussion, co-host Matt Lauer referred to the “whodunit” aspect of the revelation: “...this was leaked, these three pages of that tax return from 1995 were sent to The New York Times. They say there was a – some sort of postmark on a them that identified Trump Tower, so that either an insider or someone with a flare for the dramatic.”
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Wallace replied:
Right, so we heard from The New York Times....that there is an investigation underway to figure out how that stamp ended up on the envelope. These were sent snail mail, this is very old school, the way these documents ended up in The New York Times inbox. Now inside a campaign....there will also be a parallel operation underway to figure out how these documents left Trump Tower in the first place.
Here is a full transcript of the October 3 exchange:
7:11 AM ET
MATT LAUER: Let's bring in Nicolle Wallace and Steve Kornacki. Guys, good morning, good to see you.
NICOLLE WALLACE: Good morning.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Tax Return Fallout; Campaign Reacts to Reports He Hasn’t Paid in Two Decades]
LAUER: Nicolle, on the tax situation, if you listen to Democrats, they say this report’s a bombshell, it proves he may not have paid federal income taxes for up to18 years. Listen to Trump and surrogates are saying, “No, he's a business genius who understands taxes.” What are the voters gonna say about it?
NICOLLE WALLACE: Listen, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. For a normal campaign and a normal candidate, this would be a really big deal. For a guy who’s running as a scoundrel, I mean, his central purpose for running, the central animating theme of his candidacy is, “I have worked these rigged systems, I have bought politicians, I have basically benefitted from a corrupt tax code, so you can trust me to fix it and dismantle it.” That's his message. So I think he's in dire straits right now because of his temperament and his tweets, not his taxes.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Most of the headlines focused on the fact that these tax returns may demonstrate that he paid no federal income tax. To me, the larger issue for him would be here’s a guy who’s running on being a brilliant businessman, who took a loss of almost a billion dollars in one year. A guy whose selling point is “I’m going to run the government the way I run my business.”
STEVE KORNAKCI: Yeah, I had the same reaction, too. And I mean, ultimately, obviously in terms of the possibility of not paying taxes for two decades, that is a bombshell. On the other hand, what Nicolle is saying, I think, is true. A lot of people, I think, probably suspected this all along. This is the sort of character that Donald Trump presents himself as.
I do think his campaign is out there. You’ve heard that line “genius,” Chris Christie was saying it, Rudy Giuliani was saying it. I think they're probably, they’re overselling that way in terms of this suggestion out there that he should get high-fives for it. But I do think there was an opening here for Trump to basically argue, “Look, I'm not saying you should like this, I’m not saying you should be giving me a high-five for it, I’m saying you should realize this is a bad system. I recognize it’s a bad system, it’s a bad system that career politicians have put in place and that I want to blow up.” I do think there’d be an opening here, they’re not necessarily – I’m not hearing them take advantage of it right now though.
LAUER: Take me through the whodunit side of this. You’ve worked on campaigns, this was leaked, these three pages of that tax return from 1995 were sent to The New York Times. They say there was a – some sort of postmark on a them that identified Trump Tower, so that either an insider or someone with a flare for the dramatic.
NICOLLE WALLACE: Right, so we heard from The New York Times – one of the New York Times reporters this morning over on Morning Joe that there is an investigation underway to figure out how that stamp ended up on the envelope. These were sent snail mail, this is very old school, the way these documents ended up in The New York Times inbox. They were mailed, they wrote on the envelope that they came from the Trump Tower. Now inside a campaign, you sort of have to deal with the situation that you have. And the situation that they have is having to explain this billion dollar loss and why they haven't paid taxes. But there will also be a parallel operation underway to figure out how these documents left Trump Tower in the first place.
GUTHRIE: By the way, whoever leaked them, I mean, potentially that's a criminal issue to leak – not The New York Times to receive it necessarily, but for someone to actually have sent it.
WALLACE: And that’s the case the Trump camp would make. I would warn the Trump campaign, though, that if they spend too much time arguing about how they got out it looks like they're trying to hide something, which is in direct contradiction to Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie calling it “genius.”
LAUER: Alright, guys, thank you.
GUTHRIE: Thank you so much. By the way, the only vice presidential debate, tomorrow night. NBC News will have live coverage, it starts at 9 p.m. Eastern/6:00 Pacific.
