Donald Trump has hinted he might invite a former lover of Bill Clinton to the first presidential debate, but his campaign said yesterday it has no such plans.
Rather, Trump’s tweet to that effect was meant to show the Trump campaign has ways to “get inside the head of Hillary Clinton”, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, said on CNN.
“We’ve not invited her formally and don’t expect her to be there as a guest of the Trump campaign,” Conway said of the ex-lover, former model Gennifer Flowers.
The Clinton campaign ridiculed Trump’s mention of Flowers as frivolous.
“If this is what Donald Trump wants this debate to be about, that’s up to him,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on ABC.
“He is a reality TV star.
He’s very experienced at providing television entertainment.
The presidency’s not about entertainment,” Mook said, referring to the show Trump once starred in, The Apprentice.
Clinton has admitted having an affair with Flowers in the 1970s while serving as governor of Arkansas.
Clinton also had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in a scandal that led to his impeachment in 1998.
Trump has criticised Hillary Clinton for not leaving her husband because of his marital indiscretions.
Trump’s mention of Flowers came in a tweet Saturday night after Mark Cuban, a billionaire investor who is a vocal Trump critic and Clinton supporter, agreed to sit at the front of the audience for the televised debate Monday night in New York.
It is expected to shatter audience records with up to 90mn Americans watching.
“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!” tweeted Trump, himself a billionaire real estate investor.
Further complicating matters, a Twitter account linked to Flowers’s official website said she would attend the showdown and suggested she backed Trump.
Conway said yesterday that Trump’s tweet mentioning Flowers was meant as a warning to the Clinton campaign.
“Trump was putting them on notice we can certainly invite guests that may get into the head of Hillary Clinton,” she said, adding that Trump has no plans to bring up Bill Clinton’s infidelity at the debate.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are in a virtual dead heat in their bitter race for the White House on the eve of their first head-to-head presidential debate, a new poll showed yesterday.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Clinton’s slim margin from last month has now vanished.
Instead, the Democrat and her Republican rival tied at 41% support among registered voters, with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson at seven % and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at two %.
In a two-way match-up, Clinton and Trump each got 46% among registered voters.
While some other national surveys show Clinton with a lead, poll averages show a low, single-digit margin.
Gender, race and education were clear markers between the two candidates.
Men back Trump by 54% to 55% of women who said they support Clinton, the poll showed.
Some 53% of white voters back Trump, compared to 37% for Clinton, while non-white voters back her 69% to 19% for her Republican rival.
Trump is ahead of Clinton by more than four to one among white men without college degrees, a gap that narrows for white women without college degrees and college-educated white men.
Among college educated white women, Clinton leads Trump in the poll by 57% to 32%.
The two candidates are still grappling with high negativity among voters.
Around 39% of registered voters see Clinton favorably, compared to 57% who have an unfavourable impression.
For Trump, 38% had a positive impression and 57% a negative one, a rating five points lower than it was prior to the two parties’ national conventions in July.
While voters find both candidates lacking in honesty overall, Clinton’s ratings were worse, with just 33% of voters finding her honest and trustworthy and 66 % saying she is not.
Some 42% of voters said Trump was honest and trustworthy, while 53% said he was not.
Most voters (53%) who do not see Trump as qualified to be president, while 58% said he lacks the temperament to be an effective president and 55 % said he lacked the world knowledge required for the job.