Former President Bill Clinton says that Mitt Romney’s business record is fair game for political attacks, and that he finds it “a little odd” that Romney refuses to release more than a single year of his tax returns.

Clinton revealed his position during an interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, which was taped on Thursday and aired on Friday morning. When Guthrie asked Clinton whether he thought that the recent Democratic attacks on Romney’s time at Bain Capital are legitimate, Clinton replied in the affirmative.

“Oh, yes I do,” Clinton answered. “It’s just as relevant as the going over my record as governor got when I ran for president.”

“He’s put it at the forefront” of his campaign, the former president continued. “He’s said basically, ‘I’d be a better president because I know how to create jobs because that’s what I did.’ And he’s going to take credit for running a successful Olympics, for example. So then all your work life before you run for president is relevant, and I think that will be relevant.”

Clinton also noted that he was “perplexed” by Romney’s refusal to release more than a year of his tax returns.

“I am a little surprised that he only released a year’s worth of tax returns,” Clinton told Guthrie. “That’s kind of perplexed me, because this is the first time in, I don’t know, more than 30 years that anybody running for president has only done that.”

In Clinton’s opinion, the public “ought to know” the details of Romney’s finances.

“The voters can make up their own minds about whether they think it’s a good thing for a person who wants to be president to minimize his own tax liability,” Clinton said.

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