O’Malley: I Asked Sanders for More Debates, but Sanders Didn’t Want Them

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD), a candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, discussed the Democratic Party’s debate schedule, which he alleged was designed to benefit the party’s  front-runner, Hillary Clinton.

“They’re trying to circle the wagons around this year’s inevitable front-runner Hillary Clinton,” O’Malley said. “And I think the party leaders, or I should say the party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz is doing a terrible disservice to the public. I mean, look how many debates the Republicans have had and they schedule them on weeknights. We are the Democratic Party, not the un-democratic party. We should be having at least as many debates as they’ve had. But in the debates that we have been allowed to have – although they are hidden on Saturdays, people here in Iowa and people in New Hampshire have been going out of their way to do their due diligence and we have one more debate coming up in South Carolina.”

“Morning Joe” panelist Howard Dean, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, questioned on O’Malley on why he hasn’t gone to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), another candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, and sought out a debate that didn’t include Clinton and without the approval of the DNC.

“You think I haven’t done that?” O’Malley replied. “I’ve done that. I asked Sen. Sanders. Sen. Sanders didn’t want to do more debates, either. He kind of likes where it is. But all of that is what it is. The concentration of power and wealth in our economy — that same concentration of power and wealth is happening in the Democratic Party. You know what? I don’t care. The people are going to decide. And I’m going to go out. I’m going to campaign to the people of Iowa and I’m going to make my case in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and I believe that people understand just as their economy is rigged, so too sometimes can be their politics.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor