Will it Happen? Bernie Accepts Trump’s Offer for Debate

Last night, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Donald Trump was asked a question about whether he would consider debating Bernie Sanders. Trump said he’d love to debate him, which Sanders quickly jumped on and accepted the challenge, with the stipulation that it happen in California before the June 7th primary. For his part, Trump also stipulated that Bernie would have to cough up some money for a charity of Trump’s choosing in order for him to actually go through with it.

Report from The Hill:

Donald Trump late Wednesday said that he is ready and willing to debate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for charity.

“Yes, I am,” he said on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “How much is he going to pay me? If he paid a nice sum toward a charity, I’d love to do that.

“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,” the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee added.
Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, later accepted Trump’s offer, even offering a potential battleground site.

Trump also said that a television network could foot the bill for such a debate, adding that the potential ratings would justify their expense.

“That could happen also,” he told Kimmel. “In fact, I’ve been saying that should happen anyways.

“When we did the Republican debates, Fox had 24 million people, the largest in the history of cable television,” Trump added. “CNN three weeks later had 23 million people, the largest in the history of CNN.

“I must say, I think I had a lot to do with that. I said, ‘Why aren’t we getting paid for this?’ I’ve been saying this for a long time. Get paid, give the money to charity, pick good charities and give the money to charity.”

Sanders wasted no time in accepting the invite:

Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016

Whether this debate will actually happen remains to be seen. Maybe we’ll get some details in the next few days if Trump’s statement was serious. He had to know that Bernie would accept it, so I have to think Trump may be prepared to deliver. Fox News was already trying to put together a Clinton/Sanders debate in California, perhaps they can revive that process and substitute Trump for Clinton.

Hillary Clinton is either laughing at this prospect or it will have her campaign in a flurry since Sanders will arguably have the largest viewing audience since the campaign began. That is, of course, if this debate actually happens, and there’s no official confirmation yet that it will.

Stay tuned for this one.