Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban may enjoy trolling Donald Trump, but considering the Republican nominee’s own prowess for Internet buffoonery, he may have met his match. Especially since the former’s latest taunt involves being invited by Hillary Clinton to sit in the front row at the first televised presidential debate on Monday. Whether or not Cuban is telling the truth no longer matters, because Trump took the bait and bit back Saturday afternoon… and hard.
“If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row,” Trump quipped on Twitter, “perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!”
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2016
Just in case you need a refresher as to who Gennifer Flowers is, CNN reminded viewers and readers “Flowers, a former Arkansas state employee, said she had a 12-year sexual relationship with Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential run.” While the specificity of her claims were never verified, Bill acknowledged having a “sexual relationship” with her during his 1992 deposition.
That Trump would actually bring Flowers to the event — let alone formally invite her to attend Monday’s live broadcast from Hempstead, New York — seems highly unlikely. While the New York real estate mogul has repeatedly made references to Bill Clinton’s infidelities, and even threatened to leverage that information against Hillary during the televised debates, Saturday’s tweet is most likely a snappy response to Cuban’s previous trolling.
Hence why Cuban’s immediate response offered yet another insult against Trump, as opposed to a defense of either Hillary or Bill Clinton.
UPDATE: BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski reached out to Gennifer Flowers and spoke with her assistant regarding Trump’s threatened invite. Not only was no actual invite received, but the assistant suggested Flowers had never been “interested in being [a] sideshow” before”:
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/779742126234071040
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/779742374574645250
However, things changed an hour and a half later when Flowers’ office told Kaczynski she’d “agreed to join Trump for the debate”:
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/779765974069288960
Flowers didn’t say whether or not Trump had actually invited her, and the campaign didn’t immediately return Kaczynski’s request for comment.