Harry Reid owes Mitt Romney an apology.
The Romney campaign on Friday released details of the Republican nominee's 2011 federal tax return, along with a signed letter from his tax advisers attesting to the fact that Romney paid taxes from 1990 to 2009.
Their statement flatly contradicts Senate Majority Leader Reid's unfounded and baseless assertions, made repeatedly over the last several months, that Romney paid no taxes at all for 10 years.
"He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain, but obviously he can't release those tax returns. How would it look?" Reid told the Huffington Post in July.
"So the word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years," Reid said on the floor of the U.S. Senate in August. "Let him prove that he has paid taxes because he hasn't." He repeated the allegation, which he said came from "an extremely credible" and extremely anonymous source, in a statement.
On Aug. 16, Reid's office issued this statement: "Until Mitt Romney releases his tax returns, Americans will continue to wonder what he's hiding. Romney seems to think he plays by a different set of rules than every other presidential candidate for the last thirty years, all of whom lived up to the standard of transparency set by Mitt Romney's father and released their tax returns."
And just this week, on the Senate floor, Reid said that "For all we know, Mitt Romney could be one of those who have paid no federal income taxes."
Even Friday, Reid responded to the announcement that Romney was releasing his returns by telling a Las Vegas Sun reporter, "He's hiding something. He's hiding something! It is so evident he's hiding something!"
The WFB will continue to monitor Reid's office for an apology to Mitt Romney—though we may be waiting a long, long time.