We Might Get to See a Sanders-Trump Debate Before June 7

Let's make this happen, people.

Hillary Clinton has refused to meet Bernie Sanders for another debate before the California primary. So on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, Kimmel asked Donald Trump if he'd be willing to debate Sanders instead. Trump said he would, and Sanders promptly tweeted this:

Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 26, 2016

This is, of course, a brilliant idea, and not just because Trump/Sanders will be an innately interesting combination. Why shouldn't candidates from opposing parties debate each other before the nominations wrap up? All year I've been hearing people say, "Just think how [Candidate X] would mop the floor with [Candidate Y] in the debates!" Well, now we needn't imagine it: We may actually get to see such a match-up. I only wish we'd also had a chance to watch a Clinton/Paul debate, or a Webb/Rubio debate, or—dare I imagine it?—the Biden/Trump face-off that every political journalist was fantasizing about last summer.

Comments

[mfckr]

I predict Trump/Sanders will mostly play nice. They'll highlight real disagreements, but not brutalize each other. The ultimate shared objective is to undermine MIA Hillary?which it'll certainly do.

[Jesse Walker]

Trump would probably play nice. With Sanders, it's trickier?he'll be tempted to tag-team Hillary, but he'll also want every Trump-hating Democrat to think he's the champion they need in their corner.

[Slay! Robby=Bae. Sashay, Soave]

tag-team Hillary

Sweet dreams, everybody

[thrakkorzog]

I thought we all agreed to stop feeding SF straight lines.

[Curtisls701]

My eyes!

[Thane Eichenauer]

Neither has a motivation to play nice.

[Robert]

That's right, & they'll both win.

[pronomian]

Trump may only play nice until he thinks bernie attacks him. This is gold, people think trump is stupid. His call to at least raise 10-15 million for woman health puts the onus on whoever picks up the debate and puts a check mark in his "I love women" column. It may not help but it won't hurt. Trump is going after bernie's supporters, notice he hasn't said anything derogatory about sanders? In fact, he has said though he is not a fan, he defends sanders as being a victim of a corrupt party. There is no way trump supporters, most republicans and al lot of democrats will swing toward sanders regardless of the debate outcomes, this is a good ploy for trump if he can pull it off.

[Slay! Robby=Bae. Sashay, Soave]

Prog fight

"Who Will Censor You Harder?!"

[True Neutral Paladin]

I'm not a fan of Sanders, but that response is pretty f***ing awesome.

Even if a Sanders-Trump debate doesn't happen, that kind of fearless bravado in regards to Trump makes Sanders look good, especially given Hillary's cowardly refusal to debate Sanders before the primary. It might win him a few more votes.

Full disclosure: I love the phrase "Game on." I might be giving him a few extra points for using it. 😛

[Notorious UGCC]

Flame on, I'm gone
I'm so sweet like a nice bon bon

[thrakkorzog]

Move aside a let the man go through. Super Bon-Bon

Yeah, I still don't get it. It was the 90's.

[Thomas O.]

Great decade for quirky music, in my opinion.

Love that song, too. It pops in my head every time I see a "Mezzanine" button in an elevator.

[Ken Shultz]

"Game on."

Bernie Sanders doesn't express himself that way. That tweet was written by someone on his staff whose job it is to write calculated responses like that.

If a different staff member had been duty that day, the tweet might have read, "Let's rock!".

You think Bernie Sanders tweets from his smartphone, as the mood strikes a few times a day, like for reals?

P.S. He doesn't write or direct his own TV commercials either. It's unlikely that he writes most of his own speeches.

[pronomian]

He supposedly got kicked out of a commune for not working, he has done nothing, as far as I know, in congress, has never held a real job, so not writing his own speeches or doing anything on his own fits.

[pronomian]

The best thing to happen to the anti sanders people is venezuela.

[But Enough About Me]

I'd actually pay real money to see that debate.

[esteve7]

When you think about it, why don't we have cross-party debates before the nominations?

That's like not playing other conference teams until the finals. Even baseball started interleague play 20 years ago (even though the AL plays Fake Baseball)

[Slay! Robby=Bae. Sashay, Soave]

even though the AL plays Fake Baseball

Truth!

[Curtisls701]

Meh, who wants to see a pitcher strike out.

[Libertarian]

"When you think about it, why don't we have cross-party debates before the nominations?"

It would certainly shake up the strategies of running on the left/right during the primaries, then moving to the center for the general. Leave it to two outsiders to shake things up -- funny how that happens.

[Cdr Lytton]

This is hilarious. Trump continues to do all sorts of things politicians 'just don't do'. Calling bullshit on the usual polite fictions that pols use with each other. Not caring about appearances that someone is supposed to. Now he can use Sanders as a standin for Democrats in general and Hilary in particular.

I don't think Trump is quite in the same league as Reagan or the R team player, but he certainly seems to be exhibiting the same qualities, incredibly divisive while able to draw popular support, shitting on the media narrative, and bending his supposed weaknesses into strengths. Mocking Mondale with the "I won't hold his youth and inexperience against him" line is something that Trump could have done (or will do).

[Cdr Lytton]

Checked Hillary's tweets to see if any reaction there. None so far but the amount of Trump related tweets is astounding. Almost all of them in the last couple of days (as far back as I went before losing interest) are about how awful terrible Trump is. Is he her sock or the reverse? Or are both Tulpa's?

[JeremyR]

I don't remember Reagan being a stooge of Russia like Trump is.

Or railing against free trade and Wall Street.

And of course, Reagan actually had an amnesty for Mexicans.

[mfckr]

Trump is just for normalizing relations w/ Russia, not being a gung-ho retard for Cold War 2.0 like current NATO/US policy wants to gin up.

There's no point beefing with Putin.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

They don't need to have similar POLICIES to have similar STRATEGIES.

[pronomian]

Reagan didn't rail against free trade? From a NY Times article published April 2, 1983:

"WASHINGTON, April 1? In an unusually strong protectionist action, President Reagan today ordered a tenfold increase in tariffs for imported heavyweight motorycles.

The impact of Mr. Reagan's action, which followed the unanimous recommendation of his trade advisers, is effectively limited to Japanese manufacturers, which dominate every sector of the American motorycycle market.

The action was exceptional for protecting a single American company, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee, the sole surviving American maker of motorcycles."

[pronomian]

I love when he called out the gov. of New Mexico.

[SparktheRevolt]

What does Trump gain by even claiming that he would do this?

[True Neutral Paladin]

Makes Hillary look even weaker?

[thrakkorzog]

It's win/win for Trump.

So so let's say in a Trump vs. Sanders debate, Sanders wins the debate, and just shuts down Trump hard. Like afterwards, Sanders is riding around on a white stallion with Trump's head on a Lance, while Queen plays in the background, and Hannity is waiting in the wings to give Sanders a BJ. That's how big Sanders won the debate.

Hillary is still going to be the nominee. and that's going to piss off even more Berniebros, and push them into the #neverhillary camp.

And if Trump wins the debate, then well.Trump wins the debate.

[pronomian]

I'm starting to wonder how many soro's paid pro sanders disrupters will be there to not like trump speak when it's his turn.

[JeremyR]

Two Northeast liberals agreeing on how much they hate Wall Street, Free Trade, Free Markets and how much they love Russia and thuggish dictatorships all over the world.

[SIV]

^The R at the end stands for "Republican"^

[meister574]

It will be interesting for people to see how much alike these candidates really are.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

I kinda think that might be Trump's motives, and pick up some Sandernistas.

[Trigger Warning]

Gee, allow me to hide my erection at the thought of these two retards bloviating at an audience of retards for the most retarded hour in recorded history.

[Slammer]

Hey! The Independents wasn't THAT bad

[Drake]

Paul or Cruz vs. Sanders would be the debate worth seeing.

[Libertarian]

And - dare I say it - almost worth trekking to the polls for, as well.

[pronomian]

They would be too busy defending themselves. Trump is the only one that would go on the attack.

[Renegade Jew]

This would elevate our Debate Drinking Game into regions as yet unexplored by Mankind.

[Libertarian]

Libertarian livers matter!

[Jerryskids]

Trump v Sanders might not be interesting - the way Trump just says whatever falls out of his face without actually making any sense but just leaves half-a-dozen incomplete thoughts hanging out there versus Bernie's natural foggy-headedness and inability to follow a complex thought* will leave Bernie unable to respond to anything Trump says because he has no idea what Trump's trying to say. So Bernie will spend the whole "debate" hammering on his same few talking points, Trump will be yammering about god knows what, it'll be like watching a split-screen showing of two different campaign rallies.

*I seriously believe Bernie's "niceness" in not going after Hillary over the e-mail crap isn't because he thought it was a meaningless distraction and he was sick of hearing about it, it's because Bernie has no idea what a server is or how e-mail works or what the whole issue was about so how could he attack her over something he had no idea what the point of was? It'd be like asking me to critique a "blunder" made by Garry Kasparov in a chess championship - I not only can't play at that level, I can't even understand chess at that level, I have no idea what the hell a "blunder" looks like or why it's a blunder.

[Libertarian]

"Trump just says whatever falls out of his face without actually making any sense but just leaves half-a-dozen incomplete thoughts hanging out there versus Bernie's natural foggy-headedness and inability to follow a complex thought* will leave Bernie unable to respond to anything Trump says because he has no idea what Trump's trying to say"

Fans of the Dada movement would love it.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Truly, the death of Dada solidified the victory of the Dada movement!!

[pronomian]

You're talking about a successful business man vs. someone who got kicked out of a commune for not working and has done nothing in the senate. Trump embraces his wealth, sanders will try to use that against him.

[simplybe]

Wonderful idea. It will show how clueless and contridictory I think Trump is and what a spineless wimp Clinton is.

[pronomian]

clueless, contradictory, spineless.... Sounds like every elected cockroach we already have in office.

[lukashik]

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