Elections 2012: Obama calls on Romney to release tax returns

U.S. President Barack Obama. PHOTO/File

President Barack Obama has called on Republican Mitt Romney to release his past tax returns, saying that candidates for office need to be “as transparent as possible.”

Obama told Univision in an interview conducted at the Summit of the Americas in Colombia that candidates need to disclose their tax records as a way of letting the public know their financial background. It was the first time Obama had made the request personally. His campaign has pressured Romney to release a trove of tax documents going back to the 1990s.

“I think that it’s important for any candidate in public office to be as transparent as possible, to let people know who we are, what we stand for, and you know, I think that this is just carrying on a tradition that has existed throughout the modern presidency,” Obama said in an interview scheduled to air Sunday on Univision’s Al Punto program.

Romney has released tax returns for 2010 and provided an estimate for 2011 as part of the release of hundreds of pages of tax documents. The former Massachusetts governor filed for an extension on Friday for last year’s tax returns, a move he has made in the past.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Obama was trying to “distract Americans from the real issues with a series of sideshows.” She said Romney would “release his full 2011 return when it’s filed.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press