Fredreka Schouten

USA TODAY

Mike Pence said Sunday that Gennifer Flowers, who said she had an affair with Bill Clinton before his presidency, will not attend Monday's presidential debate, despite his running mate Donald Trump's indications over the weekend that he might invite her.

"Gennifer Flowers will not be attending the debate tomorrow night," Pence, the GOP's vice presidential nominee, said on Fox News Sunday. He said Trump's tweet, hinting at a Flowers' invitation, was intended "to mock an effort by Hillary Clinton and her campaign to really distract attention from where the people — the American people are going to be focused tomorrow night, which is on the issues, it's on the choice that we face."

The Twitter fight came after billionaire Mark Cuban, a Clinton supporter, scored a front-row seat to Monday's showdown at Hofstra University on Long Island. Cuban, the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, relentlessly taunts Trump on Twitter.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted: "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!" (The Benefactor was the name of a 2004 reality show Cuban starred in.)

Flowers then tweeted her willingness to attend, saying: "Hi. Donald. You know I'm in your corner and will definitely be at the debate!"

On Sunday, Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said her boss tweeted about Flowers because "he wants to remind people that he's a great counter-puncher. They started this one by saying that they would give a front row seat to Mark Cuban."

Flowers "has not been invited" by the Trump campaign," Conway said on ABC's This Week. She added, however, that Flowers "has a right to be there if somebody else gives her a ticket."

Contributing: David Jackson