Jeff Bezos Responds to Trump's Amazon Attack

Last Thursday, Donald Trump set his sights on Amazon founder/Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and pulled the proverbial trigger, accusing Amazon of "getting away with murder tax-wise" and claiming the paper was being wielded to protect Amazon from paying more in taxes. One week later, Bezos took aim of his own, speaking both explicitly and broadly about Trump's comments. In a Wednesday Q&A at a Post-sponsored tech conference called Transformers, Bezos said that while Amazon "deserves to be scrutinized," Trump's approach was "not an appropriate way for a presidential candidate to behave."

As for Amazon's taxes, "I'm very, very comfortable with all of Amazon's approaches ... The political positions we take are focused on our business, and I think highly appropriate." As for valid scrutiny, it goes both ways. "We want a society where any of us, any individual or institution, if they choose to, can scrutinize, examine and criticize an elected official, especially a candidate for the highest office in the most powerful country on Earth. It's critical." The Post's "long tradition" of putting candidates under the microscope won't change, he noted. (More Jeff Bezos stories.)