Story highlights Hillary for America spokeswoman Karen Finney spoke with CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday

The Clinton spokeswoman says Bernie Sanders is steering the Democratic primary toward conflict

(CNN) A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that Bernie Sanders' proposal for an additional Democratic debate before the New York primary is a "public stunt," and admonished the Vermont senator for running an increasingly negative campaign.

In an interview with CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day," Hillary for America spokeswoman Karen Finney suggested the Sanders team's debate demands were part of a trend toward a nastier campaign.

"We had a process whereby we were talking about adding additional debates," Finney said. "That seemed to be working just fine. And then we see this kind of stunt ... they send this public letter about, you know, demanding a debate."

She continued, "At the same time, we see reports about how they're doing polling on new lines of attack on Hillary Clinton. And so it just felt like, hold on here, you don't get to set the terms and the conditions around when or where we debate. We've had a process. Let's stick to that process rather than public stunts."

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