'We have the flight records': Trump insists that he was on helicopter with Willie Brown
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doubled down on Friday evening that he had an emergency helicopter landing with Willie Brown, even as the former San Francisco mayor denied such an incident ever happened.
Trump told the New York Times he had records to back his claim, but he has not produced them.
On Thursday, it appeared Trump had confused Brown with the former California Governor Jerry Brown, during a press conference, including a bizarre and false story about a near-death experience in a helicopter.
Adding to the mystery, a former Los Angeles city council member, 95-year-old Nate Holden, told POLITICO that it was, in fact, he who was with Trump aboard the helicopter.
“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden told POLITICO. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles."
From Mar-a-Lago, the former president dramatically recalled a story about almost crashing on a flight while traveling with Willie Brown, who briefly dated Vice President Kamala Harris several decades ago.
“I went down in a helicopter with him; we thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.”
Trump claimed that Brown had made critical comments about Harris, but the former mayor refuted those remarks, stating that he was always on good terms with his former protégée, even after their breakup.
“And Willie was — he was a little concerned, Trump explained. “So, I know him, but I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about her. But this is what you’re telling me, anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened with Kamala. But he — he, I don’t know, maybe he’s changed his tune. But he — he was not a fan of hers very much, at that point.”
However, new details show that perhaps Trump confused the two California politicians.
Brown, a longtime Democratic power broker who also served as the California State Assembly speaker, told the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump’s press conference that he was never in a helicopter with the former president.
“You would have known if I had gone down on a helicopter with Trump,” he told the newspaper. He also denied that he had ever said anything disparaging about Harris to Trump.
The NYT reported that Willie Brown wasn’t on the helicopter flight at all, but Gov. Jerry Brown, the former governor of California. The current governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who was also on the flight, said there was no emergency landing, and the helicopter’s passengers were never in any danger.
“I call complete B.S.,” Newsom said.
So what did happen on the helicopter?
In 2018, then-President Trump toured fire-ravaged portions of California via helicopter alongside then-California Governor Jerry Brown.
Brown, who left office in January 2019, confirmed to CNN through a spokesperson, that there was no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris.
Trump’s campaign and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday about the apparent mix-up.
When President Joe Biden, 81, was still running for reelection, Trump, 78, frequently challenged him to take a cognitive test, alleging he was unfit for office.
Biden has since been replaced atop the ticket by the 59-year-old Harris, forcing Trump to scramble to find new lines of attack.
Reuters contributed to the reporting of this story
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump claims to have flight records of emergency helicopter landing
