By James Oliphant and Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday insisted he was in a near-fatal helicopter experience with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, though Brown stated the incident by no means occurred and one other man stated he had been on an analogous flight with Trump a long time earlier.
Trump on Thursday associated the story of just about dying on a helicopter with Brown, who had briefly dated Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris a number of a long time in the past.
“I went down in a helicopter with him,” Trump stated in a rambling press convention. “We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned.”
Trump additionally asserted Willie Brown instructed him “terrible things” about Harris.
Whereas Brown denied the account, one other Black former California politician, Nate Holden, instructed Politico he had been in a turbulent helicopter experience with Trump in New Jersey, probably in 1990.
As president in 2018, Trump toured fire-ravaged parts of California by helicopter with then-California Governor Jerry Brown, NBC Information reported. A consultant for former Governor Brown, who’s white, instructed the New York Occasions there was no emergency touchdown and Harris was not mentioned throughout that flight.
Willie Brown, a longtime Democratic energy dealer who additionally served as speaker of the California State Meeting, instructed the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump’s press convention that he was by no means in a helicopter with the previous president.
“You would have known if I had gone down on a helicopter with Trump,” he instructed the newspaper. He additionally denied that he had ever stated something disparaging about Harris to Trump.
Republicans have insinuated that Brown is partly chargeable for Harris’ rise in politics, though the 2 broke up within the mid-Nineties and Harris didn’t win her first election till 2002. Whereas the 2 had been relationship, Brown appointed Harris, then a younger prosecutor, to 2 well-paying jobs on state boards.
On Friday, Trump dug in, insisting in posts on his Reality Social platform that his helicopter experience had been with Willie Brown and that it had occurred in New Jersey, not California.
“There were “Logs,” Maintenance Records, and Witnesses. There was also a story on “Willie and Me,” Trump said.
He did not provide any of the evidence he referred to in the post.
Asked to share the evidence Trump mentioned, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung referred Reuters to a post of his on X that of a picture from a page in the 2023 “Letters to Trump” book. It contains a picture of Trump and Willie Brown, and quotes Trump as saying: “We truly had an emergency touchdown in a helicopter collectively.”
Holden, a former city councilman and state senator from Los Angeles, scoffed at Trump’s account, Politico reported on Friday.
“Willie is the brief Black man dwelling in San Francisco,” Holden was quoted as saying. “I am a tall Black man dwelling in Los Angeles. I suppose all of us look alike.”
Holden added that Harris was not brought up during the helicopter ride. “He both combined it up. Or, he made it up,” Holden said of Trump.
Reuters could not immediately contact Holden. The Trump campaign did not respond to a query about whether the near-crash happened with Holden.
Trump said he would “in all probability” sue the New York Times over its coverage of his comments on the helicopter story, according to a Times story on Friday. Trump disparaged the newspaper on Truth Social, attacking its reporter Maggie Haberman as “Maggot Hagermann.”
The Occasions didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The Harris marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Friday in regards to the obvious mix-up.
When 81-year-old President Joe Biden was nonetheless the Democratic candidate within the Nov. 5 election, Trump, 78, incessantly mocked his opponent’s psychological acuity and provided to take a cognitive take a look at, arguing Biden was too infirm to be president.
Biden has since been changed atop the ticket by the 59-year-old Harris, forcing Trump to scramble to seek out new traces of assault.
