The campaign of Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is avoiding questions from Breitbart News regarding how much money he gives to charity.
On Saturday, Ted Cruz released summaries of his tax returns from 2011 through 2014 but did not disclose complete tax filings which would reveal charitable contributions.
When asked why Cruz did not disclose his charitable donations from 2011 through 2014, Cruz’s communications director Alice Stewart, first told Breitbart News, “his charitable giving is in there.” When Breitbart News made multiple inquiries about Cruz’s Schedule A form, which would detail his charitable donations, Stewart did not respond.
Unlike former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who released their full tax filings, Cruz only released the first two pages of his returns for 2010 to 2014.
Cruz has been attacking Donald Trump for not disclosing his tax returns and has suggested that Trump is afraid to release them because he is worth less money than he claims and that his tax documents show he donated to Democrats.
However, Cruz’s tax returns from 2006 and 2010 are more detailed. As BuzzFeed noted, Cruz contributed less than one percent of his income to charity, which former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has criticized.
According to personal tax returns released during his 2012 Senate bid, Cruz contributed less than 1% of his income to charity between 2006 and 2010 — a far cry from the 10% most evangelical leaders believe the Bible demands.
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, added that he and his wife have tithed at least 10% every year since they were broke, young newlyweds. Asked if there was any public record of his charitable giving, he offered to forward an email from his accountant. (He did: the email stated that Huckabee had donated 11.05% of his taxable income in 2014, and 11.82% in 2013.)
“It’s a matter of authenticity,” said Huckabee, who was careful not to call out Cruz by name. “If I say I’m a vegan but you look at me eating hamburgers and ribeye every night you’re going to say, ‘I don’t think this guy’s really a vegan.’”
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