Tech Company Calls Donald’s Bluff: We’d Pay $10M For A Trump-Sanders Debate!

Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks during the CBS News Republican presidential debate at the Peace Center, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
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A New York City-based technology company said Thursday it would meet presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump’s condition for a one-on-one debate with Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders by donating $10 million to charity.

“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, said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “We are willing to offer that $10 [million] donation in return for the opportunity to host the debate.”

Hecker said he hopes to host the debate June 6 in California, a day before the state’s primary, and would like to host it in the largest possible venue.

“The debate format would focus on compromise and solutions. We would invite the candidates to look at the forum less as a debate, and more as a negotiation for the future of America,” he said in the statement.

The offer comes after a day of back-and-forth between Trump and Sanders over a potential debate. The billionaire said in a Wednesday night late show appearance that he would consider debating Sanders if he donated to charity, a condition he later specified as a $10 million donation to women’s health issues.

Sanders, for his part, has enthusiastically expressed his willingness to debate Trump in California, where Clinton declined to debate the Vermont senator.

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