Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders welcomes a debate with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, the candidate said at a Los Angeles town hall on Thursday.
“I think it’s important that someone take him to task,” Sanders said at the Revolt TV event in Hollywood. “I look forward to that.”
Aimed at young voters, the multi-platform network’s event featured questions submitted via social media.
Sanders explained that it does no one any good to have a candidate who is trying to “tear us apart” as a country.
The comments at the town hall echo a tweet that Sanders sent on Wednesday after Trump said on Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he would be open to a debate. “Game on,” Sanders wrote. “I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.”
Talk of a debate between the two candidates began after Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton declined to participate in a Fox News debate in California, an invitation that Sanders accepted.
“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 cross-party debate between Trump and Sanders would be unusual given that Hillary Clinton is largely expected to win the nomination, and it would likely anger Clinton supporters in California, who are already calling on Sanders to drop out of the race.
“He could really help build the party and create unity,” L.A.-based lawyer and longtime Clinton fundraiser Dana Perlman recently told TheWrap. “Instead, he’s on this Kamikaze mission that does nothing more than feed his ego.”