Clinton, Sanders continue to spar over debate dates

Washington, April 4: Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton and opponent self-styled socialist Bernie Sanders have continued sparring over a plausible debate date ahead of the April 19 New York primary. But the two sides are not in agreement yet. While the Clinton campaign is aiming for the evening of April 14, the Sanders campaign is resisting that date. “I’m not quite sure how that works on our schedule. We may have a major rally being scheduled,” Sanders told CNN on Sunday.

The latest back-and-forth over the Democratic debate schedule began last week when Sanders called for the Clinton campaign to accept a debate in Brooklyn.

In January, the Sanders and Clinton campaigns agreed to add four more debates into the schedule, after criticism from many in the Democratic Party, including Sanders, that there were too few debates.

“I’m confident that there will be a debate before the April 19 New York primary,” Clinton said, adding, “I’m not the one negotiating it. That’s going on between our campaigns. And I do know my campaign has really been trying to get a time that Setor Sanders’ campaign would agree with.”

CNN, NBC and ABC are among the networks seeking to host a debate between the two Democratic Party candidates. The two candidates have not sparred on-stage since the Univision-Washington Post debate on March 9. So far, Clinton is leading the Democrats race with 1,742 votes against Sanders. He has gained 1,051 votes. Clinton still needs about 600 more votes to win the party nomition. (IANS)