Donald Trump has been spreading the story about an “emergency” helicopter landing, but several Democrats were quick to shut it down after the former president held a press conference Thursday filled with false claims.
When asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ past relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, the Republican candidate said she knew Brown “very well” before starting to talk about going down “in a helicopter” with him.
“We thought, ‘Maybe this is the end.’ We were in a helicopter together going to a certain location, and there was an emergency landing,” Trump said, speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
He continued, “It wasn’t a happy landing, and Willie was a little bit worried. So I know him. I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years.”
Brown, a longtime Democratic leader in California, was on a helicopter without Trump when it made a “horrible emergency landing” in 2004.
But he told the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN on Thursday that he has never had that experience with the former president, and that the former president was “clearly wrong.”
“If I was in a helicopter crash with Trump, I would know,” Brown told the Chronicle, disputing Trump’s claims that he disparaged Harris, with whom he dated for about a year. “I never flew in a helicopter with Trump.”
Brown told KRON-TV in San Francisco that the Republican nominee is doing what he does best with his “virtual” creativity.
NBC News reported that Trump appeared to mix up the former San Francisco mayor’s name with former California Gov. Jerry Brown.
Jerry Brown and then-Gov. Gavin Newsom toured the state’s wildfire-ravaged areas by helicopter with President Trump in 2018.
A spokeswoman for the former California governor told The New York Times there was no emergency landing and there was no discussion about Harris, while Newsom said the plane “did not crash.”
Newsom called the helicopter story “complete bullshit.”
