Jimmy Fallon Debriefs Rachel Maddow on the Trump Tax Return Reveal and Why People Went So Nuts: WATCH

Rachel Maddow sat down with Jimmy Fallon for a debriefing on the much-discussed Rachel Maddow reveal of Donald Trump’s tax return.

Maddow said she and the producers spent all day Monday and Tuesday trying to verify the document and didn’t know if the White House was going to respond to it until close to airtime on Tuesday.

Maddow explained why the hype was so magnified:

“I think the reason people got so excited about the news…is because, it’s really weird that the president hasn’t released his financial information…it’s really odd. And there’s reasons to worry about it. We’ve had that from every president since Nixon. Why is this one the one who won’t release it? Especially because of the increasing worries, day by day, further increasing worries about his contacts with foreign countries like Russia…I think people are really concerned to see what’s in those tax returns. And so when we found out that we had one it was like we were speaking to a group of people dying of thirst in the desert and we were like ‘behold, we have found a drop!'”

RELATED: Rachel Maddow Reveals Part of Trump Tax Returns from 2005: WATCH

She also talked about who it came from:

“One idea in favor of the idea that it came from him is that he’s the only person that could leak it totally legally without any concerns about getting sued by Trump or anybody else…they’re not threatening the leaker on this…they tried to threaten us for publishing them which is complete bull.”

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Fallon and Maddow also discussed Trump’s ties to Russia:

“The reason you want any president’s tax returns is that you want to know if he’s beholden to anybody….There needs to be more. He needs to actually disclose his figures…Show us the tax returns so we can stop freaking out about it. Otherwise we’re going to continue to worry that that might secretly be what’s driving him as long as he doesn’t show us what every other president has shown us that would set our minds at ease if it’s not true. I don’t know why he wouldn’t release these tax returns if there really isn’t anything embarrassing in them.”

Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIPFQ53VD3M