NEW YORK -- On the campaign trail Sunday, Hillary Clinton took a pass on speaking about the discovery that Donald Trump may not have paid federal income taxes for as many as 18 years.
But the Democratic presidential nominee more than compensated for her silence with a series of pointed messages posted on Twitter after she was done for the day.
“Three pages of Trump's tax returns confirm he's a business failure who's gotten rich at your expense,” Clinton said in one tweet on her official campaign account. “Imagine what he’s hiding in the rest.”
[Clinton pays visit to a Charlotte church to acknowledge pain in wake of city’s unrest]
She was referring to a New York Times report that Trump, a real estate magnate, may have canceled out years of income taxes by declaring a $916 million loss on his 1995 return that the paper obtained. Trump has declined to voluntarily release his tax returns, breaking with years of precedent for White House hopefuls.
Clinton’s tweet included a video highlighting the newspaper report and subsequent television coverage that was less than flattering for Trump.
Clinton demonstrated little interest in speaking about issue on camera Sunday.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton hugs Zianna Oliphant onstage after speaking at the Little Rock AME Zion Church in Charlotte on Sunday. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)
As she was getting ready to fly out of White Plains, N.Y., to a church in Charlotte, she ignored a shouted question on the tarmac about Trump’s tax returns.
With the traveling reporters in tow all day, Clinton also declined to make herself available for questions -- something she has been doing a few days a week recently.
Trump’s boosters have argued that the Times article was actually good for him, because it suggested a prowess at managing his finances and didn’t allege anything illegal. On ABC News’s “This Week,” former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called Trump’s actions “absolute genius.”
On her Twitter account, Clinton offered quite a different interpretation.
“Donald Trump built numerous squandered businesses on the backs of taxpayers — and he hasn't even paid his fair share,” she said in one tweet.
Another one tried to knock Trump on two fronts: his taxes and his hard-line views on immigration.
“According to @NYTimes, Trump may contribute less to our military and college students than the undocumented immigrants he wants to deport,” it said. Another of posts on Twitter said the same thing but in Spanish.
According to @NYTimes, Trump may contribute less to our military and college students than the undocumented immigrants he wants to deport.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 3, 2016