Hillary Clinton Campaign Accuses Bernie Sanders of Playing 'Games' Over Debates

Sanders camp says dates proposed "don't make a lot of sense."

By
LIZ KREUTZ
April 2, 2016, 1:26 PM ET
4 min read

TETERBORO, New Jersey — -- The debate over debates continued Saturday, as the Hillary Clinton campaign accused the Bernie Sanders camp of rejecting three possible dates ahead of the New York primary. The Sanders campaign, however, responded that they have proposed other dates the Clinton campaign has rejected.

"Over the course of the last week, we have offered three specific dates for a debate in New York, all of which the Sanders campaign rejected," Clinton's national press secretary, Brian Fallon, said in a statement today. "The Sanders campaign needs to stop with the games."

The Clinton campaign offered to debate Sanders on Monday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m., as well as on Thursday, April 14, and on ABC News' "Good Morning America" on Friday, April 15 -- a date and time the Sanders campaign had originally signed off on, Fallon said.

"Senator Sanders and his team should stop the delays and accept a debate on April 14 on the morning of April 15th," Fallon added in the statement.

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The Sanders campaign quickly fired back at the Clinton campaign.

"We are very pleased that Secretary Clinton finally has accepted our request for a debate about the needs of New York and America. Unfortunately, the dates and venues she has proposed don't make a whole lot of sense," Sanders communications director, 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. We have proposed other dates which they have rejected. We hope we can reach agreement in the near future."

The NCAA tournament ends on Monday, April 4. The Sanders campaign also did not say which dates they had offered.

The latest back-and-forth over the Democratic debate schedule began last week when Sanders called for the Clinton campaign to accept a debate in Brooklyn, N.Y., ahead of the state's primary on April 19.

In January, the Sanders and Clinton campaigns agreed to add four more debates into the schedule, after criticism from many in the Democratic Party, including Sanders, that there were too few debates.

The dates and locations for each of these debates were not agreed upon at the time.

ABC News' MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.