Tech firm offers $10M for Trump-Sanders debate

A technology investment company says it will foot the $10 million bill for a potential debate between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

“Yesterday, Mr. Trump asked for a $10 [million] donation to charity in order to accept Mr. Sanders’s challenge to debate him,” Richie Hecker, chairman and CEO of Traction and Scale, said in a statement to BuzzFeed. “We are willing to offer that $10 [million] donation in return for the opportunity to host the debate.

{mosads}“We believe that Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump collectively represent the voice of the American people. We are confident that convening the voice of the people in a nonpartisan forum will spark the revolution and make America great again.”

New York-based Traction and Scale invests in “transformative businesses that makes peoples’ lives easier,” according to its website. 

Hecker on Friday said that his company would seek “the largest venue” possible in California if Sanders, who is running for the Democratic nomination, and Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, agree to a June 6 debate there. Traction and Scale would focus primarily on internet streaming of the event, he added, but also expects TV coverage as well.

After back and forth between the two camps, with Sanders seeming on board with the idea, Trump shut debate talks down on Friday in a statement, saying, “it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher.”