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Trump now says debate with Sanders would be 'inappropriate'

Donald Trump says that he won't debate Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders after all.
Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Fresno on May 27, 2016 in Fresno, Calif. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty)
Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Fresno on May 27, 2016 in Fresno, Calif.

Donald Trump says that he won't debate Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders after all.

'Based on the fact that the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and Crooked Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee, it seems inappropriate that I would debate the second place finisher," he said in a statement.

Trump, who had said that he would participate in a debate only if it raised more than $10 million for a women's health charity, also complained that networks offering to host the event were "not proving to be too generous to charitable causes."

Trump's statement was released minutes after Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said that the Vermont senator was "prepared to accept" a proposal from one of two networks to host the unorthodox debate between Trump and Sanders, who badly trails Hillary Clinton in the delegate count.