The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid�s comments that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney hasn�t paid taxes in a decade.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday that Reid (D-Nev.) �speaks for himself� and had spoken on the issue without any guidance from Team Obama.

�He certainly speaks for himself,� Carney said, adding that Obama hasn’t expressed an opinion on Reid’s recent comments.

But Carney said Reid�s comments speak to a �broader question� about the president�s views on income taxes, saying that a �tradition� which �has been in place since 1968 of candidates for the president releasing multiple years of their tax returns is an important one.�

�You know, it�s not always every candidate�s favorite part of the process, but it�s a tradition that�s important,� Carney said. �It�s valuable to the American people as they decide who should be president. So that�s why the president has put forward his financial information, his tax returns when he was a candidate, and believes that that�s an important tradition.

In an interview last week, Reid claimed a Bain Capitol investor told him Romney had not paid any taxes in 10 years. That�s why, Reid said, Romney has refused to release more than the roughly two years’ worth of tax returns he’s already shared.

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