--- title: Presidential Debate: Donald Trump Invites Gennifer Flowers description: Gennifer Flowers, the woman who allegedly had a 12-year affair with Bill Clinton, will reportedly be at the debate as Donald Trump's guest. canonical: https://time.com/4506851/presidential-debate-gennifer-flowers/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-25T04:11:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T18:48:49.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Invites Gennifer Flowers to Attend Debate og:description: In retaliation. og:url: https://time.com/4506851/presidential-debate-gennifer-flowers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3d71b77e69a850d/6988a7625f570f90bfb22a11/gettyimages-52025319.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2048 og:image:height: 1152 og:image:alt: Gennifer Flowers (R) blows a kiss to talk show hos og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Invites Gennifer Flowers to Attend Debate twitter:description: In retaliation. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3d71b77e69a850d/6988a7625f570f90bfb22a11/gettyimages-52025319.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Invites Gennifer Flowers to Attend Monday's Debate > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:48 PM UTCPublished: Sep 25, 2016 4:11 AM UTC  Gennifer Flowers (R) blows a kiss to talk show host Larry King (L) during her live interview on CNN's Larry King Live show in Hollywood, CA. According to reports leaked to the press, US President Bill Clinton admitted during a deposition in the Paula Jones investigation to having an affair with Flowers while he was governor of Arkansas. RENE MACURA/AFP--Getty Images) Gennifer Flowers (R) blows a kiss to talk show host Larry King (L) during her live interview on CNN's Larry King Live show in Hollywood, CA. According to reports leaked to the press, US President Bill Clinton admitted during a deposition in the Paula Jones investigation to having an affair with Flowers while he was governor of Arkansas. RENE MACURA/AFP--Getty Images) RENE MACURA—AFP/Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 13, 2023 6:48 PM UTCPublished: Sep 25, 2016 4:11 AM UTC Gennifer Flowers, the woman who allegedly had an affair with Bill Clinton while he was governor of Arkansas and has called Hillary Clinton an “[enabler](http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/09/24/gennifer-flowers-hillary-clinton-enabler-encouraged-bill-whatever-women/)” of her husband’s sexual misdeeds, will reportedly be at Monday’s debate as Donald Trump’s guest. Trump threatened to bring Flowers to the debate in response to the Clinton [campaign’s decision to invite Mark Cuban](http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/politics/mark-cuban-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/), a billionaire reality TV star who has been critical of Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. Cuban is reportedly slated to sit in the front row. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/779729180334387200) Flowers[ tweeted back at Trump](https://twitter.com/gennflowers/status/779764506146680832) that she was a supporter and would “definitely be at the debate.” Trump’s team on Sunday [walked back the GOP nominee’s comments](http://time.com/4506963/donald-trump-gennifer-flowers-debate/?xid=homepage), saying he had suggested inviting Flowers as a joke. Trump’s running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence [said](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/25/pence-says-gennifer-flowers-will-not-attend-trump-clinton-debate.html) on Fox News that Trump was “mocking effort by Hillary Clinton and her campaign to distract voters” by inviting Flowers. Trump campaign manager Kellyanna Conway said Flowers will not attend the debate. “We have not invited her formally, and we do not expect her to be there as a guest of the Trump campaign,” Conway [told CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/25/politics/presidential-debate-preview-2016/). The invitation signals Trump’s willingness to dredge up 1990s-era scandals around Bill Clinton’s sex life in order to undermine Hillary Clinton’s reputation as a supporter of women’s issues. Like the Cuban invite, it’s also an attempt to throw a rival off her game at a high-stakes moment for both campaigns. Trump’s campaign also included a brief image of the Clintons in a 1992 _60 Minutes_ interview about Flowers in [a recent ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZJ868DHrwk&feature=youtu.be). Former Trump advisor Roger Stone told [Newsmax](http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/09/roger-stone-previews-attacks-debate-hillary-starts-trump-will-finish-video/) Saturday that if Clinton went on offense at the debate Trump would be prepared to retaliate by bringing up her husband’s sex scandals. For now, the Clinton campaign is saying she will focus on policy. “Hillary Clinton plans on using the debate to discuss the issues that matter in people’s lives,” said Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri in a statement. “It’s not surprising the Donald Trump has chosen a different path.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4506851/presidential-debate-gennifer-flowers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4506851/presidential-debate-gennifer-flowers/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Invites Gennifer Flowers to Attend Monday's Debate","datePublished":"2016-09-25T04:11:30.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T18:48:49.000Z","description":"In the front row","url":"https://time.com/4506851/presidential-debate-gennifer-flowers/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Donald Trump","presidential debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3d71b77e69a850d/6988a7625f570f90bfb22a11/gettyimages-52025319.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc3d71b77e69a850d/6988a7625f570f90bfb22a11/gettyimages-52025319.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gennifer Flowers (R) blows a kiss to talk show hos","caption":"Gennifer Flowers (R) blows a kiss to talk show hos","creditText":"RENE MACURA—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4506851/presidential-debate-gennifer-flowers/","name":"Donald Trump Invites Gennifer Flowers to Attend Monday's Debate"}}]}] ```