we are watching several stories developing at this hour. it s a moment of sadness for millions of catholics around the world. pope emeritus benedict xvi has died at the age of 95. the former pontiff passing away after what the church calls a period of ill health. benedict was the first pope to resign as the leader of the church this nearly 600 years, stepping down in 2013. also this morning, mourning the loss of a tv legend. good evening, i m hugh downs. i m barbara walters and this is 20/20. trailblazing tv news anchor barbara walters has died, known for her insightful, tough interviews. she became the first female anchor of a network evening news program and paved the way for women in broadcasting. a spokesperson says she passed away surrounded by family at the age of 93. but there are also celebrations this hour. the world welcomes in a new year. several nations already celebrating as the clock strikes midnight ushering the start of 2023. right now live pics you ar
eliminated his tax burden and claims questionable loan agreements with his children. some republicans dismissing the release as political, while trump argues that the documents should not have been released at all. the disclosures are raising scrutiny about his wealth and income. that s important to remember that president trump vowed to follow precedent and release his tax returns well before declaring for his 2016 candidacy. since then he has consistently cited an ongoing audit for the reason for his failing to follow through. i m under a routine audit and it will be released as osoon as it s done. i am going to release them as soon as we can. it will show how successful, how great this company is. the audit thing was never like a real excuse. joining me to break it down is steve rosenthal, senior fellow. studied trump s taxes and is a preeminent tax expert here to
conspiracy theorists who believe trump is secretly saving the world from an evil, liberal group of devil worshiping pedophiles. we can laugh at them but seriously it is no laughing matter. hard core qanon believers say a storm is coming that will kill all democrats. qanon linked people have been involved in violent crimes. the fbi regards qanon as domestic terror threat. it should worry us just how many republican officials are attending this conference of loons and extremists. in las vegas one of the featured speakers led the effort to overturn trump s 2020 loss in that state. he was in washington, d.c. on january 6th and even gave a speech the day before pushing the big lie. something he continues to do until today. here he is speaking at trump s iowa rally earlier this month. the lord s got a message here on this whole audit thing. with all the evidence of incompetence and criminality
of testify and congress, he spent that time he was supposed to be in congress, instead doing a conspiracy theory podcast hosted by the guy who started the conspiracy theory that dominion voting machines were a secret antifa plot. that s where he spent his time doing instead of finding congress, because it was very, very busy with the antifa plot dominion voting guy. but this ridiculous audit thing, i laughable and as increasingly incoherent as it is to the rest of us. it is still picking up steam in the republican party, it is becoming more and more central to how they re moving for it as a party, and what they re working on. and it s in multiple states now. you ll recall are reporting recently, that the my pillow guy mike, lindell. ceo of the my pillow company, who s been a key figure in the nonsense election fraud. he told idaho, a state trump
i should note now that the guy who is the head cyber ninja, the qanon promoter who is the ceo of the cyber ninjas company that carried out this audit, he was also asked to testify at this hearing this week. he refused to testify. instead of testifying to congress, he spent that time he was supposed to be in congress instead doing a conspiracy theory podcast hosted by the guy who started the conspiracy theory that dominion voting machines were a secret antifa plot. that s what he spent his time doing instead of testifying to congress, because he was very, very busy with the antifa plot dominion voting machines guy. but this ridiculous audit thing, as laughable and increasingly incoherent as it is to the rest of us, it is still picking up steam in the republican party. it is becoming more and more central to how they are moving forward as a party and what they are working on. and it s in multiple states now. you will recall, our reporting