The chairman of the Republican National Committee on Sunday blasted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) as a "dirty liar" for suggesting that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had not paid taxes for a decade.
In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, Reid claimed that someone who had invested in Bain Capital, a company founded by Romney, had told him that the candidate "didn't pay any taxes for 10 years."
Speaking to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Priebus ranted that he wasn't "going to respond to a dirty liar" like Reid.
"I'm not going to go there," Priebus said. "This is just a made-up issue."
"You say you're not going to respond but you just called him a dirty liar," Stephanopoulos noted. "You stand by that? You think Harry Reid is a dirty liar?"
"I just said it," Priebus replied. "It's hard to believe that the president of 2008 when he campaigned and said he was going to bring America together, that he would trot out Harry Reid and try to divide this country and spread this division and hatred -- it's ridiculous, it's wrong, it's untrue and it's just going to hurt the president."
Stephanopoulos pointed out that Romney could settle the issue by simply releasing his tax returns.
"You don't believe it's hurting him, you don't believe he has to do anything more?" the ABC host wondered.
"No, I think it's hurting the president," Priebus insisted. "The entire philosophy of Bill Clinton -- excuse me, of Barack Obama -- can be summarized in one word. And that's [failed solar panel manufacturer] Solyndra."
Watch this video ABC's This Week, broadcast Aug. 5, 2012.
