Dem Strategist David Axelrod Blasts Romney For Alleged Tax Shenanigans

Democratic strategist David Axelrod has slammed Mitt Romney after the late-Friday release of the GOP candidate’s tax returns for 2011, saying among other things that per Romney’s own assessment, he should not be running for president.

David Axelrod is one of a few voices that have been critical of Romney since the release Friday afternoon — one say that was timed in such a way to minimize its impact, a strategy commonly used with releases of information that organizations wish to downplay.

According to Axelrod, the release itself was also a bit shady, and he huffed to George Stephanopolous:

“Two months ago, on your own air, he said that anybody who didn’t take the deductions they were owed wasn’t qualified to be president … Well, I guess he’s not qualified, because that’s exactly what he did last week to try and get his number up from 9 or 10 percent to 14 percent.”

David Axelrod also pointed out what he believes is hypocritcal on Romney’s part, saying that the same Americans the GOP candidate mocked in the Mitt Romney tapes leaked last week are paying more in tax than Romney:

“It’s fair to say that a lot of those 47 percent that he was slandering earlier in the week probably pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes overall than he does.”

But according to Axelrod, Mitt Romney’s taxes aren’t even the biggest issue — it’s the Mitt Romney effect on everyone else’s taxes. The strategist says:

“The bigger issue isn’t that he isn’t being straight about his own taxes, the bigger issue is that he isn’t being straight about what he’s going to do to everyone else’s … You hear Chairman Priebus say we have specifics coming out of our eyeballs. I don’t think anybody else has seen those specifics.”

David Axelrod explains that he believes Romney’s plan will either grow the deficit or “sock it to the middle class,” or both.