Kellyanne Conway: Donald Trump 'Is Not Going To Release His Tax Returns'

On ABC News's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, President Trump's senior counselor and former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that her boss "is not going to release his tax returns," contradicting her previous position on the matter.

Stephanopoulos raised the issue because a petition on WhiteHouse.gov asking for the release of the returns gathered over 200,000 signatures; once a petition reaches more than 100,000 signatures, the administration is obligated to respond. The issue of Trump's unreleased tax returns also dogged him during the campaign, as he broke the precedent set by all recent presidential candidates of making the documents public.

"He is not going to release his tax returns," Conway said to Stephanopoulos. "We litigated this all through the election. People didn't care; they voted for him."

Watch the exchange below:

According to recent polling from ABC News and the Washington Post, however, Conway is not correct that people do not care. Around 74 percent of Americans say they want Trump to release his tax returns, including 49 percent of his own supporters. Four out of 10 Americans say they care "a lot" about this issue.

It seems some people may have voted for Trump despite the fact that he didn't release his tax returns, not because they didn't care.

Conway's statement on "This Week" also contradicts her own previous statements on the matter. During the campaign, Trump said he was advised not to release his tax returns while he was being audited by the IRS, despite independent tax experts saying there was no legal reason this would be necessary.

Asked on CNN when the public could expect to see the returns, Conway said in September, "When his lawyer and his accountants tell him he should release them. When he's no longer under audit. He's made that very clear."

Watch here:

As Conway indicated, Trump himself said he would release his tax returns. In fact, he told Stephanopoulos in May that he would release them, hopefully before the election, once the audit was finished.

"I will really gladly give [my tax returns]," he said.

He said the same thing to Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press" in July; however, Trump also noted then that Mitt Romney may have lost the 2012 election because he did release his taxes.

Back in January 2012, Trump insisted on FOX News prior to Romney's decision to release the returns, "Mitt has to get those tax returns out."

Photo credit: YouTube Screenshot from ABC News