Donald Trump Accepts Debate Challenge From Bernie Sanders
In an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Wednesday, Donald Trump said he’d be willing to debate Bernie Sanders. “Game on,” read a tweet sent from Sanders’ Twitter account shortly thereafter.
Sanders had issued his challenge via a written letter, which Kimmel read to Trump on his show: “Hillary Clinton backed out of an agreement to debate me in California before the June 7th primary. Are you prepared to debate the major issues facing our largest state and the country prior to the California primary?”
The presumptive Republican nominee quickly agreed. “Yes, I am,” he said. “How much is he going to pay me? Because if I debated him, we would have such high ratings and I think I should take that money and give it to some worthy charity. If he paid a nice sum for a charity I would love to do that.”
A debate between the two “would have such high ratings,” Trump added.
Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016
“What I do like about Bernie is that, when he loses—because the system is rigged against him, totally, just the way it was rigged against me, I mean, the system is rigged—and if I didn’t win by massive landslides every state there was no chance I could have won. [Bernie] is sorta having the same thing…[Hillary] has superdelegates that were just handed to her. I don’t know how she got them. Nobody understands it, but it’s an unfair system,” Trump said.
“I think it’s very unfair what’s happening to Bernie Sanders, actually, and it’s a very unfair system.”
According to Politico, the two campaigns have not yet made any formal announcement about specific plans. Sanders will appear on Kimmel’s show Thursday.