Hillary Clinton has made it clear she doesn’t want to debate Bernie Sanders anymore, but presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump could jump in and face off with the senator from Vermont.
During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Wednesday night, Trump said he’d “love to” debate Sanders, joking, “How much is he going to pay me?”
Sanders took to Twitter to accept the challenge: “Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.”
Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016
“If I debated him, we should have such high ratings, and I think I should give — take that money and give it to some worthy charity,” Trump told Kimmel. “If he paid a nice sum for charity, I would love to do that.”
A Sanders vs. Trump debate was first thought of by Fox News executives back in March, according to the New York Times. The event would be a ratings phenomenon, drawing political fans from both ides of the aisle.
“I’m here to tell you it is not a joke and those back channel discussions are continuing and there will be some event in California,” FNC’s Bret Baier said on Thursday.
But so far there’s no word that the two candidates’ campaigns have found a date for the event, or a network or other organization to host it.
The hashtag #BernieTrumpDebate quickly became a top trending topic on Twitter and has been mentioned over 20,000 times since Sanders tweeted his “game on” message.
Clinton recently declined an invitation to debate Sanders on Fox News Channel after Sanders accepted the network’s invitation.