The Trump vs Sanders Debate
So a lot of people are mad about Donald Trump supposedly pulling out of the Trump vs Sanders debate. What people seem to be overlooking, is that the debate came with terms. The terms being a large sum of money would have to be put up by either Bernie or the cable network hosting the debate, and that money would be given to charity.
Trump explicitly said he would do the debate if the sum above was $10-$15M to charity in the video here.
Let’s take a look at the two offers given that met that criteria:
1: Richie Hecker, chairman and CEO of Traction and Scale
Here’s the quote from Richie Heckler to Buzzfeed:
“Yesterday, Mr Trump asked for a $10 [million] donation to charity in order to accept Mr Sanders’ challenge to debate him,” Richie Hecker, chairman and CEO of Traction and Scale, told BuzzFeed News in a statement. “We are willing to offer that $10 [million] donation in return for the opportunity to host the debate.”
I think Trump made it very clear that he wanted it to be a high-rated debate on a cable network, which Traction and Scale is not. It is understandable why he refused this offer.
Let’s go to the second offer:
2: Bob Arum offers $20M to host debate.
The problem with this is, it excludes a lot of the potential audience with a pay-per-view paywall. Also adding to the ridiculousness of the offer, Bob Arum stated this:
As far as moderators are concerned, Mr. Arum said, “Screw these media moderators. They’re all … I recommend Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney.”
No one in their right mind would consider this a serious debate. Why would both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders want Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney to moderate the debate?
It can still happen, I think that behind doors Trump is actually negotiating about it. But to think that these above options met the terms that were set is ridiculous.
In the Trump campaign’s official statement, it says the important following:
Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher. Likewise, the networks want to make a killing on these events and are not proving to be too generous to charitable causes, in this case, women’s health issues. Therefore, as much as I want to debate Bernie Sanders – and it would be an easy payday – I will wait to debate the first place finisher in the Democratic Party, probably Crooked Hillary Clinton, or whoever it may be.
No major cable network gave an offer for the price he set. The only major network, as pointed out by a reddit user, was ABC News, and they didn’t even give a figure.
Perhaps next week a new offer meeting the terms will come, and we can move forward and enjoy the debate. I would be looking forward to it.
