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Trump’s account of a harrowing helicopter ride and emergency landing? That didn’t happen, says Willie Brown

Trump’s account of a harrowing helicopter ride and emergency landing? That didn’t happen, says Willie Brown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump confounded two prominent California politicians when he told a harrowing story about nearly crashing a helicopter.

During a meandering press conference Thursday full of false and misleading statementsrecalled Trump riding as a passenger in the helicopter with the former mayor of San Francisco 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 never shared a helicopter with Trump, the former mayor said. Instead, it was former California Govt. Jerry Brown who rode with Trump in a helicopter in 2018 to map the damage caused by forest firesand no emergency landing was reported.

On Friday night, Politico reported that Nate Holden, a former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator, said he once rode with Trump in a helicopter bound for New Jersey that nearly crashed.

“Willie is the short black guy who lives in San Francisco,” Holden told Politico. “I’m a tall black guy living in Los Angeles.”

It was the latest apparent example of Trump misspelling names or telling anecdotes that don’t hold up to scrutiny — in this case to disparage Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

“I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said of the alleged incident. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe that was the end.”

He continued: “We were in a helicopter going to a certain place together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.”

Trump said Brown also told him “terrible things” about Harris. “He wasn’t much of a fan of hers at the time.”

But Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle that he has 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 rode in a helicopter to survey wildfire damage in 2018. But no problems with the flight were reported.

Current Governor Gavin Newsom was also on the plane. A spokeswoman for the Democrat, Izzy Gardon, said Friday there were no problems with the flight, no emergency landing and no conversation about Harris.

Willie Brown’s long relationship with Harris has been rekindled 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 implying that Harris did not legitimately earn his political positions.

Brown served as speaker of the California State Assembly in the 1990s while he and Harris were in a relationship. Brown had separated from his wife in 1982.

Harris, 59, spent several years as a Bay Area prosecutor before being named the state’s attorney general in 2010 and then elected a U.S. senator in 2016. She has been married to Doug Emhoff since 2014.

Trump campaign spokeswoman 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 great stories from his life.”

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