Trump claims to have flight records of emergency helicopter landings

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doubled down on Friday night that he had an emergency helicopter land with Willie Brown, despite San Francisco’s former mayor denying that such an incident ever happened.

Trump told the New York Times that he had records to support his claimbut he has not produced them.

On Thursday, Trump appeared to have confused Brown with the former California governor Jerry Brownduring a press conference, including a bizarre and false story about a near-death experience in a helicopter.

From Mar-a-Lago, the former president dramatically recalled a story about nearly crashing a flight while traveling with Willie Brown, who dated briefly Deputy Chairman 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 place 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 comments, claiming that he was always on good terms with his former protégé, even after their breakup.

“And Willie was — he was a little worried,” 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 horrible things about her. But this is what you’re telling me anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened to Kamala. But he – he, I don’t know, maybe he’s changed his tune. But he—he wasn’t much of a fan of hers at that point.”

However, new details show that Trump may have confused the two California politicians.

Brown, a longtime Democratic power broker who also served as speaker of the California State Assembly, told the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump’s news 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 paper. He also denied ever saying anything disparaging about Harris to Trump.

That was reported by the NYT Willie Brown was not on the helicopter flight at allbut Governor Jerry Brown, the former Governor of California. The current Governor of California, Gavin Newsomwho was also on the flight, said there was no emergency landing and the helicopter’s passengers were never in any danger.

“I call complete BS,” Newsom said.

So what happened on the helicopter?

2018, then chairman Trump toured fire-ravaged parts of California via helicopter together with 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 about Kamala Harris.

Trump’s campaign and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday about the apparent mix-up.

When president Joe Biden81, still running for re-election, Trump, 78, frequently challenged him to take a cognitive test and claimed he was unfit for office.

Biden has since been replaced at the top of 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