Will Donald Trump And Bernie Sanders Actually Debate Each Other In California?

NOTE: Further updates can be found at the bottom of this post.

Something very weird happened on Wednesday night. During his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, which caused The Weeknd to cancel his performance on the show, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump incited — and agreed to — a debate with Democratic rival Bernie Sanders. Yes, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has amassed more delegates than Sanders and will likely become the nominee, but it was a question from Sanders posed by Kimmel that spurred the Donald into an argumentative state.

“Here’s the question from Bernie,” Kimmel asked, just before briefly employing a half-hearted Sanders impression to ask it. “Clinton backed out of an agreement to debate me in California before the June 7 primary. Are you prepared to debate the major issues facing our largest state and the country before the California primary? Yes or no?”

Needless to say, Trump’s answer was both intriguing and unsurprising. Intriguing because he said “yes,” and not at all surprising because he immediately asked Kimmel, “How much is he going to pay me?” When the talk show host pressed the New York real estate mogul about his asking price, Trump launched into an explainer about ratings and raising money for charity.

“If I debated him, we would have such high ratings. I think I should take that money and give it to some worthy charity… If he paid a nice sum toward a charity, I would love to do that.”

The prospect of a rival candidate’s campaign paying Trump to debate him — regardless of whether or not he actually gives any of it to charity — is a ridiculous offer. After all, most of Sanders’ cash comes from countless individual contributions that voters and small groups have donated to his presidential efforts. Why should he use that money to pay the Donald for a televised debate?

He shouldn’t, which is why Kimmel immediately segued to the possibility that the money might come from another source. “What if the network put up the money,” he asked, “then you guys came in [and debated]?” Trump agreed, adding “that should happen anyway.”

Sanders, who’s scheduled to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live‘s Thursday episode (hence Kimmel relaying his question to Trump), agreed on Twitter. Shortly after Trump’s answer was broadcast on the east coast, the Independent Vermont senator took to social media to voice his support for the proposed debate with Trump and the loose terms they’d suggested. “Game on,” he tweeted:

That Sanders would pose the possibility of a debate in the first place, that Kimmel would agree to ask it, and that Trump would agree to do it is telling. Besides, the prospect of yet another televised debate was all Trump needed to bring up the fact that the first two major GOP debates, broadcast on Fox News in August and CNN in September, had raked in 24 million and 23 million viewers respectively. In the months that followed, he raised holy hell with the two cable networks, demanding they pay him (and, by extension, the other candidates) for their participation in the debates. He even skipped out on another Fox debate to host his own event, which supposedly raised money for veterans’ groups.

All of this begs the question: What network was Kimmel referring to when he asked Trump, “What if the network put up the money?” The latter’s appearance on the show was enough to generate the now-typical amount of news coverage on television and online, but aside from the same Associated Press story published by the Washington Post and other major outlets, ABC News hasn’t touched the story in any detail.

Maybe that’s because the powers-that-be at ABC’s news outlet just didn’t think there was much of a story in a possible Sanders-Trump debate. Or perhaps they’re the network in question, the television outlet that might be willing to fork over the cash to the two presidential candidates for what would, in the Donald’s words, “have such high ratings.” Unless something breaks during the Thursday news day, viewers and voters will just have to wait until Kimmel interviews Sanders at the end of the day.

UPDATE — 11:53 a.m. EST: According to Trump campaign sources questioned by CBS News, the presumptive Republican nominee was just joking. We should have known.

(Via Jimmy Kimmel Live, Bernie Sanders on Twitter and Associated Press)

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