Bernie Will Release His Tax Returns and I'm Sure Everyone Will Be Satisfied

In a move that is sure to be received in good faith and with nuance by everyone, Bernie Sanders has told the New York Times that he will release 10 years worth of his tax returns by Monday—and confirmed that he is now a millionaire, something we already knew from his 2017 Senate financial disclosure.

Indeed, I suspect it is highly unlikely that Sanders’ critics will leap on his millionaire status, as the Times pointed out and was definitely not super weird about:

Mr. Sanders — whose trademark on the campaign trail is his Brooklyn-accented rant against the “millionaihs” and the “billionaihs” — consistently ranked among the least wealthy members of the Senate.

But since his 2016 run for the presidency, Mr. Sanders’s financial fortunes have improved. His 2017 Senate financial disclosure forms show he earned roughly $1.06 million that year, more than $885,000 from book royalties. His most recent book, “Where We Go From Here,” was published last year.

(Does the Times mock the accents of any other candidates, or is it just Sanders?)

Yes, as I said, I could not be less concerned that people who hate Bernie Sanders and are deeply invested in him not winning the nomination will use this fact to criticize him as a hypocrite—since, as we know, socialism is all about individual philanthropy. Haven’t even considered that we might spend at least an entire week deciding whether or not Sanders is allowed to advocate for redistributive policies while being worth more than a million dollars.

Looking forward to some very normal conversations about this.