(JTA) — Donald Trump said he would debate Bernie Sanders ahead of the California primaries if the event could raise $10 million for “women’s health issues.”
Sanders, a candidate to be the Democratic presidential nominee, challenged Trump to the debate Wednesday night on “ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was a guest on the TV show, and host Jimmy Kimmel read Sanders’ challenge to him.
“Yes I am. How much is going to pay me? Trump responded. “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.”
Sanders quickly tweeted to confirm.
Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016
The hashtag #BernieTrumpDebate, which had generated nearly 60,000 tweets, was trending on social media Thursday afternoon.
According to USA Today, Trump told reporters in Bismarck, North Dakota on Thursday that the debate would have to raise at least $10 million in profits for charity if we was going to participate.
“I’d love to debate Bernie, he’s a dream,” Trump said. “If we can raise for maybe women’s health issues or something, if we can raise $10 or $15 million for charity.”
As Kimmel noted on behalf of Sanders, the Clinton campaign announced the candidate would not debate Sanders in California before the June 7 primary. The Democratic rivals agreed in February to add four debates to their calendar and have participated in three.
Sanders said Monday he was “disturbed but not surprised” that Clinton backed out of the planned debate. Most polls have Clinton leading Sanders in the California primary race by less than ten points.
CBS News reporter Sopan Deb tweeted Thursday that multiple sources close to Trump say he was joking about the debate.
Multiple sources tell @Cbsnews that Trump was kidding about debating Sanders & it will never happen. (H/t @stevechaggaris and @MajorCBS)
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) May 26, 2016
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