Sanders 'rejected' New York debate, says Clinton's team

Hillary's side says Sanders said no to proposed dates and venues for the debates

The campaign team of US presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton has said that rival Bernie Sanders rejected three proposed debate dates ahead of the New York primary on April 19 -- marking the latest dustup in an increasingly heated fight for the Democratic nomination, media reported.

"Our campaigns are trying to reach an agreement about that. We've offered dates and we've done it over the last several weeks, so we've been trying to figure out when we could do this. But there's a lot to talk about," Clinton told moderator Chuck Todd on Saturday.

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Clinton's campaign team said in a statement that it offered April 4 as the first potential date, but the Sanders team wanted instead to schedule the debate on April 5. Clinton officials then suggested April 14 and April 15 as possibilities and were hopeful Sanders will accept.

"The Sanders campaign needs to stop with the games," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon wrote. "The Sanders campaign needs to stop using the New York primary as a playground for political games and negative attacks against Hillary Clinton. The voters of New York deserve better."

The proposed debate on April 15 would be on ABC's "Good Morning America", Fallon explained but "that, too, was rejected".

"Unfortunately, the dates and venues (Clinton) has proposed don't make a whole lot of sense," Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs responded in a statement.

This is the newest tussle in a Democratic primary that has been plagued by debate drama.