Trump’s tale of a harrowing helicopter ride and emergency landing? Didn’t happen, Willie Brown says
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump confused two prominent California politicians when he told a harrowing story about a near-crash in a helicopter.
During a meandering press conference Thursday full of false and misleading statementsTrump recalled being a passenger in a helicopter with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown when he had to make an emergency landing. The remarks were in response to a question about a relationship between Brown and Vice President Kamala Harris three decades ago.
But Brown never shared a helicopter with Trump, the former mayor said. Instead, it was former California Gov. Jerry Brown who rode in a helicopter with Trump in 2018 to map the damage caused by forest firesand no emergency landing was reported.
“I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said of the alleged incident. “I even went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end.”
He continued: “We were in a helicopter, on our way to a certain location, and there was an emergency landing. It was not a pleasant landing.”
Trump said Brown also told him “horrible things” about Harris. “He wasn’t a big fan of hers at the time.”
But Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle he has never been in a helicopter with Trump.
“You would have known if I had crashed in a helicopter with Trump,” Brown told the newspaper.
The longtime Democratic politician said he never discredited Harris, even to Trump.
“No, absolutely not,” Brown said. “I would never tell him anything bad about any woman.”
Former California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and Trump flew in a helicopter in 2018 to survey wildfire damage, but no problems were reported with the flight.
Current Gov. Gavin Newsom was also on the plane. A spokesperson for the Democrat, Izzy Gardon, said Friday there was no problem with the flight, no emergency landing and no discussion about Harris.
The two Browns both have decades-long public-sector careers in California. Willie Brown, 90, is black. Jerry Brown, 86, is white.
Willie Brown’s long-ago relationship with Harris has resurfaced since she became the Democratic nominee for the White House. Now that Trump is facing her in his bid for a second term, he and other Republicans have used the relationship to lob attacks suggesting that Harris did not legitimately earn her political positions.
Brown was Speaker of the California State Assembly in the 1990s when he and Harris were in a relationship. Brown divorced his wife in 1982.
Harris, 59, served as a Bay Area prosecutor for many years before being appointed the state’s attorney general in 2010 and then elected as a U.S. senator in 2016. She has been married to Doug Emhoff since 2014.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign, declined to explain the inconsistencies in Trump’s story when asked about them on Newsmax on Friday.
“I would refer you to President Trump’s statement and what he said yesterday,” Leavitt said. “The president has a lot of great stories from his life.”