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Bernie Sanders' campaign announced he accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by Fox News. | AP Photo Bernie Sanders accepts Fox News debate invitation

Sen. Bernie Sanders has accepted a Fox News invitation for a Democratic debate in California, the Sanders campaign announced on Wednesday.

“Both campaigns have been invited by Fox News to a debate. We have told the network that we would accept the invitation with the understanding that we can reach mutual agreement on the debate moderators, the format and other details,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager said in a statement.

Fox News has expressed interest in holding a Democratic debate for months and has been publicly lobbying the Democratic National Committee. In March, both Sanders and Hillary Clinton participated in back-to-back town halls with Fox host Bret Baier. On Tuesday, Fox News sent a formal letter to both campaigns inviting them to a debate, the Washington Post reported. The letters and the Sanders campaign's statements didn't specify a time or place, though Fox News said the debate would be moderated by anchors Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace, who have been roundly praised for their handling of three Republican debates.

“Fox News has suggested several debate venues in California to the Democratic National Committee and both candidates. We are also offering a variety of dates, being careful to exclude Friday and Saturday nights, per the agreement between the DNC and candidates. Fox will release further debate details as appropriate, given that only one of the two candidates has accepted our debate invitation so far," Bill Sammon, VP and Washington Managing Editor said in a statement.

Back in February the Clinton and Sanders campaigns agreed to extend the Democratic debate schedule by four more debates. Three have been held, but the final debate, to be held in California in May before the state's June 7 primary according to the agreement, didn't seem to be on anyone's mind as of last week. The public statement accepting the debate is similar to the public negotiation the Sanders and Clinton campaigns engaged in before the last Democratic debate, hosted by CNN in Brooklyn, which came together just ten days before the event. A Sanders adviser told POLITICO last week that they expected a similarly public debate about the debate to happen again.

"The DNC will continue to facilitate negotiations with both of our candidates," DNC spokesman Luis Miranda said in an email.

A Clinton campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This post has been updated with Fox News' statement.

