Karl Rove claims he's thrown a few more coins into those red charity kettles than President Obama and Vice President Biden.
Rove, senior advisor to former President George W. Bush, critiqued the current administration's charitable giving history in an interview with Mike Allen, Politico's chief political correspondent, Monday morning at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Allen noted that Rove's position as an analyst is "quite lucrative," a point Rove eschewed, but took as an opportunity to highlight his giving history:
"None of your damn business," Rove countered. "I do pay a higher effective tax rate than President Obama. And I do make more charitable contributions as a percentage of my income than either he or the Vice President."
Rove went on to liken the Bidens' charitable giving to that of the Clintons, who deducted $2 from their taxes for donating underwear.
“Of course, that’s not hard when its compared with Vice President Biden," Rove said. "I think he’s getting his tips on charitable giving from Hillary Clinton pre-1992, you know, mark up the underwear and give it away to Goodwill.”
The Bidens were ridiculed by conservative pundits and many others for giving 1.46 percent of their $379,035 income in 2011. The Obamas gave $172,130 to charity in 2011, which was 22 percent of their income.
On the other side of the aisle, Mitt and Ann Romney gave more than $7 million to charity in 2010 and 2011, about 16.4 percent of their adjusted gross income from 2010 to 2011, according to tax records released in January. The Romneys' cash donations included $1.5 million in 2010 and $2.6 million in 2011 to the Mormon church.
Mitt Romney has refused to release more than his 2010 tax return and his 2011 return -- which the campaign plans to release before Oct. 15, Reuters reports. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have each released 12 years of tax returns.
WATCH Rove's comments in the video above.
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