Gennifer Flowers: I’ll be at presidential debate vows Clinton’s ex lover

Hours before the hotly anticipated presidential debate, Donald Trump has offered voters an added incentive to tune in.

Gennifer Flowers announced at a press conference in 1992 (pictured) that she had engaged in a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton. Picture: AP

With hours to go to the most hotly anticipated presidential debate in living memory, Donald Trump has offered American voters an added incentive to tune in.

On the stage at Hofstra University, near New York, tonight he will be taking on Hillary Clinton - and in the front row will be Gennifer Flowers, a lounge singer who once had an affair with Mrs Clinton’s husband. She will probably be seated near Bill Clinton, like an inconvenient wedding guest.

It is a set-up worthy of a Latin American soap opera, and Ms Flowers has proved more than willing to play her part in front of an expected 90 million viewers. “Yes, I will be there,” she told The New York Times, and posted stories about it on her Facebook page. Her assistant told Buzzfeed that “Ms Flowers has agreed to join Donald at the debate”.

Wow... An interesting day! Looking forward to tomorrow 💜 blessings and kisses to you💋 pic.twitter.com/388QDi0l89

— Gennifer Flowers (@gennflowers) September 25, 2016

Yesterday, however, Mike Pence, Mr Trump’s running-mate, said that Ms Flowers had not been formally invited. “Gennifer Flowers will not be there,” the Republican vice-presidential nominee told Fox News. He said that Mr Trump had merely floated the idea in response to the Clinton campaign’s decision to invite Mark Cuban, a billionaire businessman and star of the reality TV show Shark Tank, who has been ridiculing Mr Trump on Twitter.

“Just got a front row seat to watch @HillaryClinton overwhelm @realDonaldTrump, at the ‘Humbling at Hofstra’ on Monday,” Mr Cuban wrote on Twitter. “It’s on!”

To this barb, Mr Trump replied that “if dopey Mark Cuban wants to sit in the front row perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!”

Ms Flowers famously announced, at a press conference in 1992 when he was campaigning for the presidency, that she had engaged in a 12-year affair with Mr Clinton. In a deposition years later, Mr Clinton admitted engaging in “sexual relations” with her.

The subject of Mr Clinton’s past infidelities has been raised repeatedly by Mr Trump on the campaign trail. In this case, however, Mr Pence suggested that his running-mate would claim the high moral ground. “Hillary Clinton thinks this is an episode of Shark Tank but this is serious business.”

As Mr Pence was speaking on one television network, the Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, was telling another network that Ms Flowers might be there. The campaign had not invited her, she told ABC, but “she has a right to be there if somebody else gives her a ticket”.

Mrs Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, said: “If this is what Donald Trump wants this debate to be about, that’s up to him. He’s very experienced at providing television entertainment. The presidency is not about entertainment.”

The Times

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