CNN 2012-08-07

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We begin tonight "Keeping Them Honest" with Senate majority leader Harry³ Reid doing what gamblers often do in his state. He's doubling down. Doubling down, tripling down, and now quadrupling down really on unproven allegations about Mitt Romney and taxes, claiming he didn't pay any taxes for a decade, without the chips, and in this case the facts, to back it up. Governor Romney reacted sharply today. 

 

 

 

“It’s time for Harry to put up or shut up. Harry is going to have to describe who it is he spoke⁴ with because of course that is totally and completely wrong. It's untrue, dishonest, and inaccurate⁵. It's wrong. So I'm looking forward to having Harry reveal his sources and we'll probably find out it's the White House.” 

 

 

 

So far he has not. In fact, as you'll see in a moment when Dana Bash joins us, he's not backing down a bit. Offering no facts, no evidence, just allegations and insinuations. 

 

 

 

Now before we go any further on this story, you should know that we're not being partisan⁶ here. For weeks, we've reported on Michele Bachmann and her four Republican House colleagues who are making unfounded allegations about Islamic radicals⁷ infiltrating⁸ the U.S. government. Making claims about relatives of Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

 

 

 

Well, the standard should be no different for Democrats⁹, independents, libertarians or anyone. Extraordinary allegations require extraordinary proof, or frankly¹⁰ any kind of proof. Michele Bachmann and company don't even have ordinary proof, and neither so far does Senator Harry Reid. 

 

 

 

This began earlier this week when Mr. Reid told "The Huffington Post" what he says a Bain Capital investor¹¹ told him. Harry, he says, this investor told him, quote, "He didn't pay any taxes for 10 years." He went on, "Now do I know that's true?" "Well, I'm not certain." That was Harry Reid saying, I'm not certain. 

 

 

 

So you'd think that not being certain about the truth of an explosive allegation, you'd kind of keep it to yourself, right? Well, instead, Senator Reid, the highest ranking Democrat¹ in Congress, went further with some local reporters saying he had a, quote, "number of people tell me that," unquote. So there, it went from one person telling him to now a number of people. Then today, he went even further. 

 

 

 

“So the word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes because he hasn't.” 

 

 

 

OK, so now this is on the floor of the Senate. He is now saying the word is out. Well, the word is out because Senator Harry Reid put it out. What he hasn't put out is anything that anyone can check. Not the name of his source, not anything. 

 

 

 

Here's what Republican Senator John McCain told me about this earlier today. 

 

 

 

Harry Reid on the floor of the Senate today reiterated¹² this idea that Mitt Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years. He said, and I quote, on the floor of the Senate, "So the word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove he has paid taxes because he hasn't." He's offered absolutely no proof at all about this. Does it surprise, I mean, what do you make of this, is this just politics? Is this acceptable?

 

 

 

“First of all, I've known Senator Reid for many, many years. And occasionally he displays some rather erratic¹³ behavior. To accuse someone of doing something without a shred¹⁴ of proof that, that, the allegation has any substance, is really something I frankly don't understand. I think politics are tough. And I enjoy the give and take, but I think Harry might have gone over the line here.”

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