Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reiterated on Friday evening that he had landed an emergency helicopter with Willie Brownwhile the former mayor of San Francisco denied that such an incident ever occurred.
Trump told The New York Times that he had documents to support his claim but could not produce them.
On Thursday, it emerged that Trump had confused Brown with former California Governor Jerry Brown during a press conference, telling a bizarre and false story about a near-death experience in a helicopter.
From Mar-a-Lago, the former president anxiously recounted a story about a near-crash on a plane while traveling with Willie Brown, who briefly dated Vice President Kamala Harris decades ago.
“I went down in a helicopter with him; we thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter together going to a certain location, and there was an emergency landing. It was not a pleasant landing.”
Trump claimed that Brown had made critical comments about Harris, but the former mayor denied the remarks and said he had always been on good terms with his former protégé, even after their split.
“And Willie was — he was a little concerned, 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, I guess. But he had a huge role in what happened to Kamala. But he — he, I don't know, maybe he changed his tune. But he — he wasn't a big fan of hers at the time.”
However, new details show that Trump may have confused the two California politicians.
Brown, a Democratic stalwart who also served as speaker of the California State Assembly, told the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump's press conference that he had never been in a helicopter with the former president.
“You would have known if I had crashed in a helicopter with Trump,” he told the newspaper. He also denied ever saying anything disparaging about Harris to Trump.
The NYT reported that Willie Brown was not on the helicopter flight at all, but former California Governor Jerry Brown. Current California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was also on the flight, said there was no emergency landing and that the helicopter passengers were never in danger.
“I call it complete nonsense,” Newsom said.
What actually happened in the helicopter?
In 2018, then-President Trump visited fire-ravaged parts of California by helicopter, along with then-California Governor Jerry Brown.
Brown, who resigned in January 2019, confirmed to CNN through a spokesperson that there was no emergency landing and that Kamala Harris was not discussed.
The Trump campaign and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday about the apparent error.
When President Joe Biden, 81, was still campaigning for re-election, Trump, 78, regularly challenged him to take a cognitive test, claiming he was unfit for office.
Biden has now been replaced by the 59-year-old Harris, leaving Trump scrambling for new attack strategies.
Reuters contributed to the reporting of this story
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump claims to have flight data of helicopter emergency landing
