Sanders angers Democrats with Trump debate ploy

“It’s peculiar,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “It’s all about Bernie trying to get the advantage in California. It’s not going to work.”

A minority of Democratic lawmakers, though, said they’d be fine with Sanders going toe-to-toe with Trump on TV, if only to unmask the Republican nominee as a false advocate for working people. They said Trump was never sufficiently challenged on his prescriptions for the economy during the primary, with all the attention on his insults.

“The more Donald Trump gets exposed in the context of public policy, the better it is for our country,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

“It’s a good idea,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state. “The economic future of our country needs to be debated.”