Clinton’s Super Tuesday leaves Sanders' path forward in doubt

Hillary Clinton can’t lock up the Democratic nomination just yet – but she seemed to be well on her way Tuesday, building a large delegate lead against her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Fox News projected Sanders winning primaries in Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont, as well as caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota.
However, Clinton was projected to win primaries in the delegate-rich states of Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Massachusetts and Tennessee. Many of those victories came by convincing margins, with results showing Clinton beating Sanders by 60 percentage points in Alabama, 40 percentage points in Arkansas, 43 percentage points in Georgia and 33 percentage points in Tennessee.
Tuesday's results considerably narrowed Sanders' path to the Democratic nomination. Mathematically, he can still win his party’s nod, but it will be an uphill climb.
Sanders told supporters in Vermont that he was up for the challenge and vowed to keep fighting until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July.
“This campaign is not just about electing a president. It is about transforming America,” Sanders said Tuesday night at a rally in Essex Junction, Vt. “It is about making our great country a nation it has the potential to be.”
Sanders added that the election is about “dealing with some unpleasant truths” and “having the guts to confront those truths.”
In a verbal jab at Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Clinton told a cheering crowd of supporters that the goal was not to “make American great again” but to “make America whole again.”
She made her victory speech in Florida, ahead of the key March 15 primary there.
Democrats in 11 states weighed in on whom they want on the November ballot. Clinton aimed for a clean sweep of six states, while Sanders set his sights on five states, including two with caucuses.
Tuesday was the busiest day on the primary calendar so far. For Democrats, 859 delegates will be up for grabs – more than a third of the 2,383 needed to clinch the nomination.
Sanders started the day by casting a ballot for himself in Vermont and said he felt “great” about his prospects.
“After a lot of deliberation, I know that Bernie Sanders here in Vermont got at least one vote,” Sanders joked to reporters with his wife Jane by his side. “I was working on my wife. So I probably got two. So we are feeling pretty good.”
Clinton spent her morning talking to local residents at a Minneapolis coffee shop and local market. She was expected to spend the evening in Miami.
Clinton’s victory over Sanders in the southern states hinged on turning out the states’ large black population. About 4 in 10 voters in Georgia's Democratic primary were black, and about 8 in 10 of them favored Clinton. That mirrors her strong showing among black voters in South Carolina over the weekend.

Trump, Clinton rack up Super Tuesday wins; Cruz keeps foothold

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each scored a string of impressive primary victories Tuesday night that sent an emphatic message to voters and their respective political rivals that the primary season might be all but over, and the race for the White House is on -- though Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, with victories in delegate-rich Texas and in Oklahoma and Alaska, is far from conceding anything.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, too, found reason to press on, with Super Tuesday wins in Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado and his home state of Vermont. Even Marco Rubio, after a string of second- and third-place finishes, found his first win in Minnesota.
But with Clinton amassing a huge delegate lead, the more competitive race is on the Republican side – where Cruz clearly edged Rubio in the Super Tuesday battle for second and quickly positioned himself as the better candidate to take on Trump.
“Tonight was another decision point, and the voters have spoken,” Cruz said in Texas, urging voters to unite behind him so he could take on Trump “head to head.”
Even with the senators' victories, Trump emerged from Tuesday’s contests closer than ever to the nomination, and acting more and more like a general election candidate eager to take on Democratic front-runner Clinton.
“Once we get all of this finished, I’m going to go after one person, and that’s Hillary Clinton,” he said, at an unusual primary night press conference in Florida. “I think that’s frankly going to be an easy race.”
Speaking in Florida after notching several wins, Clinton also seemed to look beyond Sanders – taking implicit shots at Trump’s “make America great again” campaign slogan.
“America never stopped being great,” Clinton said. “We have to make America whole.”
She also mocked his proposal for a southern border wall, saying, “Instead of building walls, we’re going to break down barriers.”
Trump answered right back, quipping: "Make America great again is going to be much better than making America whole again."
With results still coming in, Trump is projected to win in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. Clinton is projected to win Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Across 11 states, 595 Republican delegates were up for grabs Tuesday – nearly half the number needed to clinch the nomination. And on the Democratic side, Clinton and Vermont Sen. Sanders were battling for 865 delegates in 11 states – roughly a third of the number needed to clinch the nomination.
No matter how the delegate math shakes out, the primary races are not over – yet.
While the Super Tuesday contests marked the biggest day of primary season voting to date, the states were mostly allocating delegates proportionally, meaning even the runner-ups could add to their totals.
Rubio stressed that point, as he began to focus on the March 15 contest in his home state.
“We never said Super Tuesday was going to be our night,” he told Fox News.
Cruz clearly had the better night.
Texas was the biggest prize on the Super Tuesday map, offering 222 Democratic delegates and 155 Republican delegates. A win for Cruz in his home state was considered critical, and he was able to thwart any potential late-hour surge by Trump there.
While Cruz put subtle pressure on Rubio to step aside, Trump openly mocked the Florida senator after earlier calling on him to drop out – a call Rubio rebuffed. Trump again called him a "lightweight" while threatening to take on the Florida senator in his home state in two weeks.
Clinton entered Super Tuesday with a head of steam following her landslide win over Sanders in South Carolina this past Saturday.
Sanders, though, savored his home-state win all the same, rallying cheering supporters in Vermont Tuesday evening.
"It is good to be home," he said, before shifting to his stump speech slams against a "corrupt campaign finance system."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who expressed low expectations for Super Tuesday, remains in the GOP race in hopes of making it to the Ohio contest in two weeks, though his presence continues to frustrate efforts by Rubio and Cruz to consolidate support.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, meanwhile, has defended his continued presence in the race.
“People have asked for somebody who is not a politician, who was a member of we the people, who has an outstanding life of achievement and who thinks the way they do,” he told Fox News.

Trump's Sprinkler Head Cartoon

Senior Clinton aide maintained top secret clearance amid email probe, letters show

EXCLUSIVE: A senior Hillary Clinton aide has maintained her top secret security clearance despite sending information now deemed classified to the Clinton Foundation and to then-Secretary of State Clinton's private unsecured email account, according to congressional letters obtained by Fox News. 
Current and former intelligence officials say it is standard practice to suspend a clearance pending the outcome of an investigation. Yet in the case of Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former chief of staff at the State Department, two letters indicate this practice is not being followed -- even as the Clinton email system remains the subject of an FBI investigation.
In an Oct. 30, 2015, letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa -- who has been aggressively investigating the Clinton email case -- Mills' lawyer Beth A. Wilkinson confirmed that her client “has an active Top Secret clearance." The letter said previous reporting from the State Department that the clearance was no longer active was wrong and due to "an administrative error."
A second letter dated Feb. 18, 2016, from the State Department's assistant secretary for legislative affairs, Julia Frifield, provided additional details to Grassley about the "administrative error." It, too, confirmed Mills maintained the top secret clearance.
The letters come amid multiple congressional investigations, as well as an FBI probe focused on the possible gross mishandling of classified information and Clinton's use of an unsecured personal account exclusively for government business. The State Department is conducting its own administrative review.
Under normal circumstances, Mills would have had her clearance terminated when she left the department. But in January 2014, according to the State Department letter, Clinton designated Mills “to assist in her research.” Mills was the one who reviewed Clinton’s emails before select documents were handed over to the State Department, and others were deleted.
Dan Maguire, a former strategic planner with Africom who has 46 years combined service, told Fox News his current and former colleagues are deeply concerned a double standard is at play.
"Had this happened to someone serving in the government, their clearance would have already been pulled, and certainly they would be under investigation. And depending on the level of disclosure, it's entirely possible they would be under pretrial confinement for that matter," Maguire explained. "There is a feeling the administration may want to sweep this under the rug.”
On Monday, the State Department was scheduled to release the final batch of Clinton emails as part of a federal court-mandated timetable.
So far, more than 1,800 have been deemed to contain classified information, and another 22 “top secret” emails have been considered too damaging to national security to release even with heavy redactions.
As Clinton's chief of staff, Mills was a gatekeeper and routinely forwarded emails to Clinton's personal account. As one example, a Jan. 23, ‎2011 email forwarded from Mills to Clinton, called "Update on DR meeting," contained classified information, as well as foreign government information which is "born classified."
The 2011 email can be declassified 15 years after it was sent -- indicating it contained classified information when it was sent.
Fox News was first to report that sworn declarations from the CIA notified the intelligence community inspector general and Congress there were "several dozen emails" containing classified information up to the most closely guarded government programs known as “Special Access Programs.”
Clinton has maintained all along that she did not knowingly transmit information considered classified at the time.
The U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual lays out the penalties for taking classified information out of secure government channels – such as an unsecured email system. While the incidents are handled on a "case by case" basis, the manual suggests the suspension of a clearance is routine while "derogatory information" is reviewed.
The manual says the director of the Diplomatic Security Service, "based on a recommendation from the Senior Coordinator for Security Infrastructure (DS/SI), will determine whether, considering all facts available upon receipt of the initial information, it is in the interests of the national security to suspend the employee’s access to classified information on an interim basis. A suspension is an independent administrative procedure that does not represent a final determination …”
Fox News has asked the State Department to explain why Mills maintains her clearance while multiple federal and congressional investigations are ongoing. Fox News also asked whether the department was instructed by the FBI or another entity to keep the clearance in place. Fox News has not yet received a response.

Ambassador killed in Benghazi attack considered leaving Libya in April 2011, emails reveal

Seventeen months before he was killed in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Ambassador Chris Stevens was seriously considering leaving the country as its civil war widened. 
The ambassador's concerns are reflected in emails sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's inner circle. The emails were released by the State Department Monday as part of the 14th and final batch of messages from Clinton's private server.
One email in particular, dated April 10, 2011, relays Stevens' safety concerns to the State Department. It was sent by a State Department official named Timmy Davis to several key Clinton aides, including Jake Sullivan, now the top foreign policy adviser on Clinton's presidential campaign, and Huma Abedin.
The message, with the subject line "Stevens update" reads, in part, "The situation in Ajdabiyah [a town approximately 90 miles southeast of Benghazi] has worsened to the point where Stevens is considering departure from Benghazi. The envoy's delegation is currently doing a phased checkout (paying the hotel bills, moving some comms to the boat, etc) ... He will wait 2-3 more hours, then revisit the decision on departure."
The message from Davis indicates there is heavy sniper fire and shelling in Ajdabiyah. According to the message, Stevens is apparently trying to see if “this is an irreversible situation. Departure would send a significant political signal” that the U.S. had lost confidence in Libya's Transitional National Council, which oversaw the rebel forces fighting to overthrow dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Davis' message was forwarded to Clinton by Abedin. The secretary of state's response is not known.
The latest email release also indicates that State Department official Wendy Sherman sent at least one classified email to Clinton in August 2012. The email, which Sherman sent with the attached message, "I don't usually forward emails such as below", dealt with Egyptian troop movements.
Sherman, who left the State Department this past October, led the U.S. delegation at last summer's nuclear talks with Iran. Fox News previously reported that Sherman appears in a 2013 State Department video saying that in the interest of speed, Clinton and her aides shared information that "would never be on an unclassified system" normally.
Another revelation in the latest email dump is that Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged Clinton to approve the showing of Usama bin Laden's death photos to members of Congress after the Al Qaeda leader was killed by Navy SEALs in May 2011.
In an email to Clinton, Blumenthal argued that the photos would provide a boost to President Obama's political capital ahead of that summer's lengthy debt ceiling fight with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
"Having the members file through [a special secure room] will provide testimony to the President's feat," Blumenthal wrote in the May 5, 2011 message. "They will be not only be acknowledging but also enhancing his power. They will in effect become liegemen bowing before him, but not in any way they will resent or will protest. They will serve as witnesses to the magnitude of what he has done."
Members of Senate and House committees who deal with intelligence and military matters were later invited to view the photos, but they have not been made public.
State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday that one additional email between Clinton and Obama was withheld from the final batch of messages, bringing the total number of such messages to 19.
Kirby also said that 52,000 pages of emails, not 55,000 as previously stated, have been released to the public from Clinton's private server, which was kept in her bathroom in her Chappaqua, N.Y. home. Kirby said 55,000 was a "colloquial" term used previously by the State Department and the real number of pages is between 52 or 53,000.

Circus smackdown: A campaign about small hands, big ears and endless insults

Marco Rubio says he “had hoped this would be a campaign only about ideas.”
But now, as the voting begins on Super Tuesday, it’s about sweating and shortness, small hands and big ears, spray tans and bad makeup and, well, pants-wetting.
Two weeks ago, Rubio told CBN’s David Brody: “I don’t do the personal stuff. I don’t do the personal attacks primarily because it’s not who I am, because I think it’s beneath the office that I’m seeking but also because I don’t want to embarrass my kids.”
But now he’s mocking Trump’s makeup and “sweat mustache” after the last debate, and saying this:
"He's like 6'2'' which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5'2". Have you seen his hands? You know what they say about men with small hands? You can't trust them."
And this: “He asked for a full-length mirror. I don’t know why, the podium only went up to here. Maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet, I don’t know.”
It’s not that I blame Rubio. Trump now routinely refers to him as “Little Marco.” He does a whole routine in which he mocks Rubio for sweating bullets and then gulps from a water bottle. Plus, Trump could emerge from today’s most delegate-rich day of the primary campaign as the all-but-certain nominee.
In presidential campaigns, you do what you gotta do.
But now the level of discourse has sunk pretty low. Forget taxes and terrorism, it’s becoming the Yo Mama election, more like a high school locker room than a race for the White House.
Entertainment and humor are part of any election. I don’t wring my hands when candidates land low blows. But the scale seems to have tilted toward the mockery side, even as everyone agrees the country is facing huge issues.
I’m not sure it’s wise for Rubio to engage in mud-wrestling with Trump, for he’s not likely to win that battle. He shows himself to be a fighter, but there’s a whiff of desperation as well. It will be fascinating to see whether the top-tier guys pull back a bit at the Fox News debate in Detroit on Thursday night.
Trump, meanwhile, finds himself in some hot water over David Duke. Now in fairness, I was watching last Friday when, at the Chris Christie press conference, Trump was asked about Duke backing him and said he would “disavow” it.
But when CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly asked him about this on Sunday, Trump seemed to sidestep the questions. When Tapper said he was just talking about Duke and the Ku Klux Klan, Trump said, “Honestly, I don’t know David Duke.”
On “Today” yesterday, Trump blamed a faulty earpiece as he conducted the remote interview from his house in Florida: “The question was asked about David Duke and various groups, and I don’t know who the groups are. I said would you do me a favor and tell me the groups? He was unable to tell me that.”
Joe Scarborough, who’s given Trump his due and interviewed him many times, went off on The Donald yesterday.
“That’s disqualifying right there,” he said on MSNBC. “It’s breathtaking, that’s disqualifying right there. To say you don’t know about the Ku Klux Klan? You don’t know about David Duke?”
Scarborough was reacting in part as a southerner who wants no party of the ugly legacy of segregation. And he tweeted yesterday, "Public (and media) perception has been that if you correctly predicted Trump's viability, you must be a supporter."
My own theory, and it’s just that, is that having disavowed Duke’s endorsement, Trump didn’t want to generate another headline about it that would overshadow his message two days before Super Tuesday. But his failure to issue a forthright denuciation has gotten plenty of media traction.
All this could quickly fade if Trump wins most or all of the states in play today. Then all the candidates will have to reassess whether trading insults is the right path: Trump because he’ll be looking ahead to a general election, and Rubio and Cruz because they will have failed to dent his huge lead.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Super Tuesday prizes: Candidates in fierce fight for Texas, other delegate goldmines

The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are charging into Super Tuesday in a coast-to-coast battle for delegates across 11 states -- but while they're looking for as many wins as possible, a few select states stand out as the crown jewels.
At the top of that list, in both primary contests, is Texas. The Lone Star State has the biggest cache -- 222 Democratic delegates and 155 for Republicans.
And perhaps no candidate is fighting harder for that prize than Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. The senator went all out on Monday, holding rallies in voter-rich Dallas, Houston and San Antonio in hopes of at least defeating national front-runner Donald Trump in Cruz's home state.
“We are going to have a very good Super Tuesday,” Cruz assured the Dallas crowd. Cruz has maintained a polling lead in the state, but knows a surprise loss there could doom his campaign.
For Republicans, the second-biggest prize is Georgia, with 76 delegates at stake. Both Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio put in face time with voters Monday in the final hours before polls open, while Cruz stayed rooted in Texas.
On the Democratic side, too, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have focused their efforts.
While Clinton declared Saturday night after her decisive win in the South Carolina primary that the campaign was going “national,” the former secretary of state was concentrating Monday on two delegate-heavy states -- the Democratic-stronghold of Massachusetts (91 delegates) and Virginia (95 delegates).
Solid wins there and beyond on Super Tuesday could give her a nearly insurmountable delegate count toward the nomination.
Clinton to date leads Sanders in the delegate count 543-to-85, including so-called superdelegates. They will compete for 865 delegates on Tuesday and a total of roughly 1,800 delegates over the next two weeks, with 2,382 needed to win the nomination.
The delegates on the line in a dozen states Tuesday represent a third of those needed to clinch the party nod.
And on the GOP side, 595 delegates are on the line Tuesday across 11 states -- nearly half the number needed to secure the nomination.
Sanders is focusing on Minnesota and Colorado, progressive states where he hopes his message of social and economic equality will translate into votes.
“Americans don’t need crumbs, they need the whole loaf,” Sanders said at a rally in Minneapolis.
He is expected on Tuesday to win his home state of Vermont, which has 16 Democratic delegates. Minnesota is worth far more, with 77 delegates.
Still, many of these contests divide delegates proportionally, and so Sanders is poised to walk away with some, even where he loses. His strategy appears to be to at least survive Tuesday, with hopes of a resurgence later this month in Maine and Rust Belt states like Michigan and Ohio.
On the Republican side, Trump has won three straight -- the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, and the Nevada Republican Caucus -- garnering 82 delegates.
Cruz kicked off the 2016 balloting by winning the Iowa Republican Caucus. He has 17 delegates, ahead of Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio with 16.
Though trailing in Texas, Trump holds big leads in other delegate-rich Super Tuesday states.
The billionaire businessman leads by double-digits in Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia, according to RealClearPolitics poll averages. Rough 53 percent of the GOP’s 595 delegates on Tuesday are in those states.
Those polls were released before Trump over the weekend initially declined to disavow the backing of former KKK leader David Duke, which Rubio says makes him “unelectable.”
Trump has since disavowed the support and blamed a supposedly faulty earpiece for his original handling of the question.
The tough race is taking a toll on the candidates. Rubio, barnstorming the South to take hold of the GOP establishment mantle, temporarily lost his voice at a rally outside of Atlanta and needed South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has endorsed him, to take the microphone.
The two other GOP candidates, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, have six and four delegates, respectively.

Bernie Sanders Cartoon

Sanders: After Clinton’s big win, Super Tuesday, beyond will be 'tough fight'

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders conceded that his campaign was “decimated” by Hillary Clinton's campaign in this weekend’s South Carolina party primary but expressed optimism about keeping alive his White House bid.
“We got decimated, that’s what happened,” the Vermont senator told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “No question, Secretary Clinton won that state and she won it big. … I think it’s going to be a tough fight, (but) I think we can pull it off.”
Clinton beat Sanders 73-to-26 percent, with exit polls showing nine in 10 African-Americans voting for her. The numbers strongly show that Clinton’s recent Nevada Caucus victory, followed by her South Carolina win Saturday, proves she has a southern “firewall” against the insurgent Sanders’ campaign.
In looking for a bright spot in the South Carolina defeat, Sanders said he did well with younger voters, whom he hopes will support him on Super Tuesday, when 11 states hold votes and roughly 880 Democratic delegates are up for grabs.
Sanders, who won the New Hampshire primary, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he thinks he can win in Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont and “do really well” in Massachusetts.
"I think we do have a path to victory," he said, adding that California and New York later in the primary season are also potential wins.
But if Sanders loses the African-American vote by similar margins in the upcoming Southern states, like he did in South Carolina, Clinton would likely take a delegate lead difficult for him to overcome.
Sanders said he and his campaign found his lack of support among older African-American voters in South Carolina “pathetic.”
Clinton suggested in her victory speech Saturday night that she’s now shifting her focus to the national election, which unofficially starts after the party convention, this year in July in Philadelphia.
“Tomorrow, this campaign goes national,” she said.
On Sunday, Clinton church-hopped across Memphis, Tenn., to mobilize African-American voters ahead of Tuesday's primaries.
At two churches in the city, Clinton asked worshippers to reject "the demagoguery, the prejudice, the paranoia.”
She never mentioned GOP front-runner Donald Trump's name, but the comments appeared directed at him, and she seemed to reference his campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
"American has never stopped being great, our task is to make American whole," Clinton said at Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith.

Cruz, Rubio reveal tax info, Cruz hints Trump tied to mob biz

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday pushed the call for front-running GOP rival Donald Trump to release his tax returns, suggesting the IRS documents might show connections to “mafia” businesses, donations to Planned Parenthood and other items that would ruin his White House bid.
“Maybe those business deals are more extensive that reported,” Cruz told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Primary voters deserve to know before the nomination because Hillary Clinton will.”
Cruz, who has released five years of returns and two-page summaries for the past four years, repeated 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s suggestion last week that Trump’s returns could include a “bombshell.”         
He said Trump’s real estate ventures reportedly have been tied to mafia-run S&A Construction, "which was owned by 'Fat Tony' Salerno, who is a mobster who is in jail.”
He also suggested on ABC’s “This Week” that the returns might show the billionaire businessman has exaggerated his wealth.
“A lot of media outlets have reported that he doesn't make nearly as much money as he says he does. We don't know. But he's clearly hiding something,” said Cruz, who, with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, is Trump’s closest rival going into Super Tuesday -- in which the GOP primary field of five will compete for 595 delegates across 11 states.
Cruz also tried to turn into a tax issue Trump’s support for the help Planned Parenthood provides to women, though the billionaire businessman doesn’t back abortions.
“At every debate, it seems, he praises Planned Parenthood,” Cruz said. “Maybe he's written them a bunch of checks.”
Trump told “Fox News Sunday” that he’s filed “voluminous” paperwork and that information about his income is available in Federal Election Commission filings.
He declined to reveal his gross income or effective tax rate and didn’t respond to a remark that the IRS says he can disclose his records, despite an audit, which Trump has cited for the delay.
“I think it's very unfair,” said Trump, despite making promises to release his tax records. “I've been singled out.”
Rubio, like Cruz, released summary pages of their recent tax filings on Saturday, seeking to capitalize Trump's refusal to release similar information.
Romney released tax records in 2012, and Clinton did last year.
Rubio and Cruz produced the first two pages of their filings to the Internal Revenue Service, which don't include key details about subjects such as their tax deductions.
They have left the door open to releasing more information, with Cruz essentially daring his opponents to go first.
"If Marco wants to release the complete thing for the recent years, I'm happy to do so as well," Cruz said. 
Every major party candidate since 1976 has released his full tax returns at some point during the campaign, according to Joseph Thorndike, a tax historian and contributing editor to Tax Notes, an accounting trade publication.
But while Thorndike faulted Trump for backing away from releasing his tax returns, he called partial releases such as those by Rubio and Cruz "fake transparency."
The tax returns released by the two lawmakers, combined with their previously released personal financial disclosures, offer an overview of their financial lives since arriving in the Senate.
Rubio released portions of his 2010 through 2014 returns, adding to 10 years of tax documents he had previously made public.
Since winning election to office in Washington, they show Rubio's income has ranged from $276,059 to $938,963, and he has paid between $46,500 and $254,894 in federal income tax. Most of the income came from a business that collected royalties on two books: Rubio's memoir, "An American Son," and a pre-campaign tract, "American Dreams."
Cruz released portions of his 2011 through 2014 returns. They show he and his wife Heidi brought in an annual average of $1.13 million with large amounts of their income coming from Cruz's work in 2011 and 2012 at the law firm Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, and his wife's work at Goldman Sachs.
Cruz also reported $190,000 in income coming from a book advance from Harper Collins in 2014.
The returns show that Cruz and his wife reported more than $5.2 million in income in those years and paid an average effective tax rate of 37.6 percent.
The summary returns yield few details on either candidate's charitable giving, but they indicate that the Texas senator, who has banked on the support of evangelicals and appealed to voters on matters of faith, hasn't tithed a full 10 percent of his income.