Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign called out Sen. Bernie Sanders Saturday for turning down three possible debate times, accusing the Vermont senator’s campaign of misleadingly demanding a debate as the Democratic primary fight moves to New York.
“The Sanders campaign needs to stop with the games,” Clinton representative Brian Fallon said in a statement Saturday morning.
Fallon claimed Clinton offered three debate times: the night of April 4, the night of April 14 and the morning of April 15, on “Good Morning America.” Each of those times came after the Wisconsin primary but before the New York’s contest. Fallon said that is the timeframe that Sanders sought, but his campaign turned down the requests anyway.
“The Sanders campaign needs to stop using the New York primary as a playground for political games and negative attacks against Hillary Clinton,” Fallon said. “The voters of New York deserve better.”
The salvo is the latest between the campaigns, which each accuse the other of dodging another debate. In an interview with the New York Daily News editorial board Friday, Sanders said that he has “asked for that debate.”
“My understanding is the Clinton people are kind of dragging their feet,” the candidate said. “I would love to see a debate.”
Sanders’ campaign responded to Fallon early Saturday afternoon, stating that they want a debate and that the Clinton campaign has rejected the dates they have suggested.
“Unfortunately, the dates and venues [Clinton] has proposed don’t make a whole lot of sense,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said in a statement. “The idea that they want a debate in New York on a night of the NCAA finals — with Syracuse in the tournament no less — is ludicrous.”
The NCCA men’s basketball tournament final is scheduled for the night of April 4th, the original date suggested by Clinton. On Twitter, Fallon said that the time Clinton offered would have the debate end before tip-off of the game.
“At this point, it seems like Sanders camp is more interested in having fake excuses to attack Hillary Clinton than actually debating in NY,” Fallon tweeted.
The New York primary takes place April 19, after the Wyoming caucuses on April 9 and the Wisconsin primary on April 5. Sanders is strongly favored in Wyoming and holds a polling edge in Wisconsin.
New York’s contest has received special attention because it is the second largest state, after California, still set to hold a primary. Clinton, who represented the Empire State in the U.S. Senate, has a big lead there, positioning her to win most of the state’s nearly 300 delegates and end Sanders’ already long odds of catching her in the contest.
That hasn’t stopped Sanders, who grew up in Brooklyn, from campaigning in the state with aggressive tactics that have angered the Clinton campaign. Those include the calls for a debate Clinton’s campaign says he won’t actually agree to and repeated arguments that Clinton is compromised by campaign contributions from the financial, oil and gas and other industries.
On Thursday night, Sanders rallied in the Bronx, drawing a crowd of 18,500, according to his campaign.
