The Slatest

Gennifer Flowers Accepts Trump’s Invitation to Attend Debate

Gennifer Flowers answers reporters’ questions following her interview on CNN’s Larry King Live show on Jan. 23, 1998, in Hollywood, California.

Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images

Within a period of hours, it went from being another one of Donald Trump’s low-blows to reality. Or at least what stands for reality when it comes to this very particular presidential campaign. Gennifer Flowers, who had a sexual relationship with Bill Clinton for years, said she is accepting Trump’s invitation to sit in the front row of the first presidential debate. It all began with a tweet, as these things often do when it comes to Trump.

“If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Jennifer Flowers right alongside of him!” Trump wrote on Saturday amid word that the Clinton campaign invited prominent Trump critic Cuban to sit in the front row on Monday. He quickly deleted the tweet only to write another one using the correct spelling of Flowers’ first name.

Cuban quickly got in on the act, mocking Trump for once referring to the two of them as the “Bobbsey Twins.”

Things were set to end there until Flowers herself took to Twitter. “Hi Donald. You know I’m in your corner and will definitely be at the debate!” And apparently she wasn’t fibbing. Flowers’ assistant told BuzzFeed that she had accepted Trump’s invitation to sit in the front row on Monday. “Ms. Flowers has agreed to join Donald at the debate,” Judy Stell, Flowers’ personal assistant, wrote in an email to BuzzFeed.

The Trump campaign has yet to confirm whether the whole thing was for real.

Those organizing the debate say they will not allow anyone to sit in the front row if the entire purpose is to distract a candidate. “We are going to frown upon—I will tell you this right now—whether or not a Republican or Democrat or anyone else attempts by use of tickets in placing people in a front row or not to try to impact the debate. It is wrong,” Frank Fahrenkopf said on CNN. “We would frown upon Mr. Cuban being in the front row if his purpose is to somehow disrupt the debate; likewise, if Mr. Trump was going to put someone in the front row to try and impact things.”

Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.