Trump: It would be ‘inappropriate’ to debate Sanders
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump won’t debate Sen. Bernie Sanders after all.
In a statement released Friday afternoon, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said it would be “inappropriate that I would debate the second-place finisher.”
“As much as I want to debate Bernie Sanders — and it would be an easy payday —I will wait to debate the first-place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be,” the statement reads.
Trump originally agreed to debate the Democratic presidential candidate when Hillary Clinton declined to debate Sanders in California, saying she preferred to turn her focus to the general election against Donald Trump. Sanders then submitted a question when Trump appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday night, asking if Trump would debate him.
Trump said he and Sanders would pull in “such high ratings” if they did agree to a faceoff.
“If he paid a nice sum for charity, I would love to do that,” Trump said on the show. He later said he would want the debate to raise $10 million to $15 million for women’s health issues.
Sanders took the challenge seriously.
Reports then circulated that Trump had been joking about the challenge, and Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said on CNN that they hoped Trump wouldn’t “chicken out.”
Call it chickening out or otherwise, but it appears Trump won’t debate Sanders. The full statement is below:
“Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second-place finisher. Likewise, the networks want to make a killing on these events and are not proving to be too generous to charitable causes, in this case, women’s health issues. Therefore, as much as I want to debate Bernie Sanders — and it would be an easy payday — I will wait to debate the first-place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be.”
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