Creator: James Olyphant and Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump insisted on Friday that he and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown practically died in a helicopter experience, though Brown mentioned the incident by no means occurred and one other man mentioned he Trump has been on comparable flights for many years.
Trump on Thursday advised the story of practically dying in a helicopter with Brown, who briefly dated Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris many years in the past.
“I went down in a helicopter with him,” Trump mentioned throughout a rambling press convention. “We thought perhaps this was the top. All of us went on a helicopter experience to a location and made an emergency touchdown. It wasn’t a nice touchdown, Willie was, and he was a little bit frightened.”
Trump additionally claimed Willie Brown advised him “horrible issues” about Harris.
Whereas Brown denied the declare, one other Black former California politician, Nate Holden, advised Politico that he had been on a helicopter experience with Trump in New Jersey, possible in 1990.
In line with NBC Information, after taking workplace in 2018, Trump took a helicopter tour with then-California Governor Jerry Brown to go to components of California that had been hit by fires. A white consultant for former Gov. Brown advised the New York Occasions that the airplane didn’t make an emergency touchdown and Harris was not mentioned in the course of the flight.
Willie Brown, a longtime Democratic energy dealer and speaker of the California Meeting, advised the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump’s press convention that he had by no means been on a helicopter experience with the previous president.
“If I have been in a helicopter crash with Trump, you’ll know,” he advised the newspaper. He additionally denied that he had mentioned something disparaging about Harris to Trump.
Republicans have advised Brown is partly liable for Harris’ rise in politics, though the 2 break up within the mid-Nineties and Harris did not win her first election till 2002. Sri Lanka prosecutor, holding two high-paying jobs on the state board.
In a put up on his “Reality Social” platform on Friday, Trump insisted that the helicopter he was on was with Willie Brown and that it passed off in New Jersey, not California.
“There are ‘logs,’ upkeep information, witnesses. There’s additionally a ‘Willie and Me’ story,” Trump mentioned.
He didn’t present any proof talked about within the put up. The Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request to share the proof Trump cited.
Holton, a former Los Angeles metropolis councilman and state senator, scoffed at Trump’s remarks, Politico reported on Friday.
“Willie is a brief black man who lives in San Francisco,” Holden mentioned. “I am a tall black man dwelling in Los Angeles. I believe all of us look alike.”
Holden added that Harris was not talked about in the course of the helicopter flight. “He both obtained it combined up or he made it up,” Holden mentioned of Trump.
Reuters couldn’t instantly contact Horton. The Trump marketing campaign didn’t reply to inquiries about whether or not the near-crash occurred to Holden.
Trump mentioned he “could” sue the New York Occasions for reporting on his feedback in regards to the helicopter incident, the New York Occasions reported on Friday. Trump disparaged the newspaper in The Reality Society, attacking its reporter Maggie Haberman as “Margot Hagman.”
The New York Occasions didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The Harris marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Friday in regards to the obvious confusion.
When 81-year-old President Joe Biden was the Democratic nominee within the Nov. 5 election, 78-year-old Trump typically mocked his opponent’s psychological acuity and provided to take cognitive assessments, arguing that Biden was too weak for the job. president.
Since then, 59-year-old Harris has changed Biden, forcing Trump to discover a new line of assault.
