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Who Is Gennifer Flowers? All About The Former Bill Clinton Mistress Who Donald Trump Has Invited To Monday’s Presidential Debate

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 09:39 PST, Sep 24, 2016

Gennifer Flowers was one of the biggest names in political scandal during the 1990s, and now she’s making a comeback thanks to Donald Trump.

The brash billionaire announced on Saturday that Flowers, who had an affair with Bill Clinton more than two decades ago, would be sitting front and center at Monday’s first presidential debate. Trump announced the move in response to Hillary Clinton’s camp inviting billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has been a very vocal critic of Donald Trump.

“If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him,” Trump tweeted.

It was apparently not an empty claim. Within hours of Trump’s claim, BuzzFeed News confirmed that Flowers would be attending the debate.

“An assistant to Flowers told BuzzFeed News in the past she had declined such invitations, not wanting to be a ‘sideshow,’ but said she would forward the invite to Flowers.

“In an email to BuzzFeed News, Judy Stell, her personal assistant then confirmed she would be attending.

“‘Ms. Flowers has agreed to join Donald at the debate,’ she said.”

To a generation of Americans, Gennifer Flowers was the face of Bill Clinton’s scandals in the early 1990s. But voters who were too young to remember that time may not have heard of Flowers, who was eventually overshadowed by Monica Lewinsky as the most famous Bill Clinton mistress.

Gennifer Flowers first burst onto the national scene in 1992 during the presidential campaign, accusing Bill Clinton of having a longstanding affair with her. After Clinton went on 60 Minutes to deny the affair, Flowers held a press conference where she played incriminating recordings of phone calls with Clinton.

The tapes were very politically damaging to Clinton, as they not only revealed his affair but also showed him criticizing Mario Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York at the time.

Clinton was able to repair his image, winning the Democratic primary and upsetting sitting president George H.W. Bush.

Gennifer Flowers continued talking about her affair with Bill Clinton for many years, even publishing a memoir called Gennifer Flowers: Passion and Betrayal. She also opened up about their affair in a 2013 interview for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The gambit to bring Gennifer Flowers to the front row likely won’t sit well with the bi-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which had already criticized Clinton’s decision to invite Mark Cuban.

“We’ll tell you this right now, whether or not a Republican or Democrat or anyone else attempts by use of the tickets in placing people in a front row or not to try to impact the debate — it’s wrong,” said debate co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf, via Business Insider. “We would frown upon Mr. Cuban being in the front row if his purpose is to somehow disrupt the debates, likewise, if Mr. Trump were to put someone in the front row to try to impact things.”

“So I’ve been working,” he continued. “We’ve been working with the campaigns staff. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. They’re approaching this as a very dignified manner in the way I think it should be approached.”

There are many who believe the decision to invite Gennifer Flowers could backfire on Donald Trump. While Hillary Clinton had been criticized for her decision to invite Mark Cuban, most of that has now shifted to Trump who took it one step further. And the Clintons were not only able to weather all of Bill’s scandals in the 1990s, but he even reached the peak of his popularity after the Monica Lewinsky scandal came to an end.

[Featured Image by Richard Drew/AP Images]

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