Team Trump responds after candidate threatens to invite Gennifer Flowers to attend debate

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Candidates locked in tight race ahead of first debate

Stakes couldn't be higher for Clinton, Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that he would invite former Bill Clinton paramour Gennifer Flowers to sit in the front row at Monday's first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, but a campaign insider told Fox News on Sunday he would not invite any special guests to call attention to the Clinton family's history.

Trump made the initial suggestion via social media after the Clinton campaign invited Mark Cuban, a fellow billionaire and prominent Trump critic, to the debate.

Trump initially misspelled Flowers' first name, with a J, then tweeted again to fix the mistake.

Clinton campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri responded: "Hillary Clinton plans on using the debate to discuss the issues that make a difference in people's lives." She added: "It's not surprising that Donald Trump has chosen a different path."

Hours later, Trump told supporters in Virginia that if elected, he would do more to help women than Clinton.

"My opponent likes to say that for decades she's been fighting for women, that she's been fighting for children. Why, then, are 70 million American women and children living in poverty or on the brink of poverty in our country?" Trump asked a rally crowd in Roanoke. "For years she's been doing this and she's done nothing."

Trump has been criticized throughout the campaign for comments he has made about women in the past, including remarks about their physical appearance. Clinton's campaign has tried to capitalize on those comments, including with a new ad that features images of adolescent girls looking at their reflections as audio of Trump's comments play.

Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.