WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump mixed up two prominent politicians from California when he told a harrowing tale of almost crashing in a helicopter.
During a meandering press conference Thursday riddled with false and misleading statements, Trump recalled riding as a passenger in the chopper with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown when it was forced to make an emergency landing. The comments were in response to a question about a relationship between Brown and Vice President Kamala Harris three decades ago.
But Brown has never shared a helicopter with Trump, the former mayor said. Instead, it was former California Gov. Jerry Brown who rode with Trump in a helicopter in 2018 to survey wildfire damage, and no emergency landing was reported.
On Friday night, Politico reported that Nate Holden, a former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator, said he had once ridden with Trump in a helicopter heading to New Jersey that almost crashed.
“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden told Politico. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.”
It was the latest apparent instance of Trump misstating names or telling anecdotes that fail to hold up to scrutiny - in this case, to disparage Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
“I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said about the alleged incident. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end.”
He went on: “We were in a helicopter, going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.”
Trump said Brown also told him “terrible things” about Harris. “He was not a fan of hers very much, at that point.”
But Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle that he’s never been in a helicopter with Trump.
“You would have known if I had gone down on a helicopter with Trump,” Brown told the paper.
The longtime Democratic politician said he has never disparaged Harris to Trump, either.
“Hell, no,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t say anything bad about any woman to him.”
Former California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and Trump did ride in a helicopter to survey wildfire damage in 2018. But no problems with the flight were reported.
Current Gov. Gavin Newsom was also on the aircraft. A spokesperson for the Democrat, Izzy Gardon, said Friday there was no problem with the flight, no emergency landing, and no conversation about Harris.
Willie Brown’s long-ago relationship with Harris has resurfaced since she became the Democratic nominee for the White House. Now that Trump faces her in his bid for a second term, he and other Republicans have used the relationship to lob attacks suggesting Harris didn’t earn her political positions legitimately.
Brown was serving as speaker of the California State Assembly in the 1990s when he and Harris were in a relationship. Brown had separated from his wife in 1982.
Harris, 59, spent years as a prosecutor in the Bay Area before her elevation as the state’s attorney general in 2010 and then election as U.S. senator in 2016. She has been married to Doug Emhoff since 2014.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt declined to explain the discrepancies in Trump’s story when asked about it Friday on Newsmax.
“I would just refer you to President Trump’s statement and what he said yesterday,” Leavitt said. “The president has a lot of amazing stories from his life.”
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