Sanders defends not releasing last 8 years of tax returns: 'My wife does them' and we've been a bit busy

Appearing on CNN's State of The Union, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders stalled off questions about releasing his income taxes for the past eight years, saying his wife does them and "we've been a little bit busy lately."

Host Jake Tapper pointed out that rival Hillary Clinton has posted her returns for the last eight years online -- leading to considerable criticism about her income -- but Sanders has yet to post his.

"I'm kind of surprised that you haven't gone further on transparency. You released the summary page of your 2014 tax returns," Tapper said. "Hillary Clinton has posted on her website the last eight years of her personal returns, all of the returns. Before the New York primary will you match her? Will you post your full returns for the last eight years?"

Sanders brushed it off, saying his wife was responsible for their taxes and that there wasn't anything "exciting" in them.

"You know who does our tax returns? My wife does our tax returns," Sanders began. "We've been a little bit busy late lately so we will get out as much information as we can but there ain't going to be very much exciting in that. I get a salary from the United States Senate, you know, so there's not going to be anything new in it that there hasn't -- that people haven't seen for the last many years, but we will get it out as soon as we can."

"But nobody has seen them at all, I guess, is the point. And whether or not there's anything exciting in them," Tapper replied before being abruptly cut off by Sanders.

"No. That is not true, that is not true," Sanders replied. "Of course, we have released them in the past! Our financial situation, to the best of my knowledge, has not changed very much, but we will get out all of that information as soon as we can."

Watch the video below via CNN: