(Newser)
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Calm down, everyone. Mitt Romney will release his tax returns … just as soon as he has clinched the GOP nomination. "If I become our nominee, and what's happened in history is people have released them in about April of the coming year and that's probably what I would do," he said at last night's South Carolina debate. The presidential race will likely be decided by then, USA Today notes. As for the records, "I have nothing in them that suggests there's any problem and I'm happy to do so. I sort of feel like we are showing a lot of exposure at this point," Romney said.
He also mentioned that he researched what the campaigns of John McCain, George W. Bush, and others had done. "They have tended to release tax records in April or tax season," he said. "I hadn't planned on releasing tax records because the law requires us to release all of our assets, all the things we own. That I have already released. It's a pretty full disclosure. But, you know, if that's been the tradition and I'm not opposed to doing that, time will tell." Last night, Rick Perry joined Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and President Obama's campaign in calling out Romney for his failure to release the records.
