News / Politics

Sanders will not debate Thursday unless Clinton meets conditions

Wednesday, 03 February 2016 2:00 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 03 February 2016 5:49 PM ]

US Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will not participate in Thursday's Democratic presidential debate unless Hillary Clinton agrees to his conditions on future debates, Sanders' campaign says.

"We are continuing to negotiate with them not just about the debate Thursday night, but about the other debates that we have said need to be agreed to in order to put the whole package of debates together," Tad Devine, a top Sanders' campaign official, told The Hill. "They have not agreed to at least one aspect of it, which is we've asked for a debate in New York, and they do not want to have a debate in New York."

This is while Clinton, who just edged Sanders by a razor-thin margin of 0.2 points in Iowa, has urged the Vermont senator to debate her in New Hampshire this week, saying her campaign will meet the conditions.

The debate is scheduled to be held at 9 pm in New Hampshire on Thursday.

“I sure hope — we’re in Bernie Sanders’ backyard here in New Hampshire — I sure hope he intends to show up in his neighboring state,” Clinton (pictured below) told CNN on Tuesday. “Let the people of New Hampshire see us both on the debate stage.”

Regarding the New Hampshire debate, Sanders' campaign said the candidate would only participate under certain conditions.

“This is really hard to follow because when we said we would do the debate, they came back with conditions,” Clinton said of Sanders’ campaign. “We met the conditions. Then they said they want different conditions, and we’ve tried to be very accommodating but, you know, we have agreed to everything that they have asked us to do."

“We’ve accepted all of their conditions,” she continued. “We did that last week, and they keep trying to add new conditions, which, you know, raises questions about how ready or willing they are to debate here in New Hampshire.”

Meanwhile, Sanders asked the Democratic Party on Tuesday to release a raw vote count from the Iowa caucuses due to concerns of voter fraud and missing votes.

"I honestly don't know what happened. I know there are some precincts that have still not reported. I can only hope and expect that the count will be honest," said Sanders while on a flight to New Hampshire, where the next caucuses will take place on February 9.

US Presidential candidates, meanwhile, arrived in New Hampshire fresh from Iowa on Tuesday to start campaigning there.

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