Former President Trump said that he and Willie Brown almost crashed in a helicopter and that the former San Francisco mayor told him “terrible things” about Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.
False and false, Brown says.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, conducted a meandering 65-minute news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday where he insulted Harris, reasserted false and misleading claims and talked about the U.S. in apocalyptic terms.
He also related the tale of being in a helicopter and facing danger with Brown.
“Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, maybe this is the end,” Trump said.
“We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing,” he said. “This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie, he was — he was a little concerned. So I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about [Kamala Harris].”
Brown says Trump’s claims are untrue.
“I’ve never done business with Donald Trump, let’s start with that,” Brown told Bay Area TV station KRON. “And secondly, I don’t think I’d want to ride on the same helicopter with him.”
He also denied demeaning Harris to Trump.
“It’s just as accurate as all of the other components of what you’re asking me about,” Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle. “No, not accurate at all.”
Willie Brown told KRON he “could not envision thinking of Kamala Harris in any negative way. She’s a good friend a long time ago, absolutely beautiful woman, smart as all hell, very successful, electorally speaking.”
Brown dated Harris in the 1990s at the beginning of her career in San Francisco. The connection drew backlash against Harris from critics who said she gained politically from the relationship.
Brown did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment Thursday evening.
Trump did take a helicopter ride in 2018 — with a different Brown. He accompanied then-Gov. Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, California’s governor-elect, to survey the devastation from the Camp fire in the town of Paradise. There was no news at the time of an emergency landing — though alighting amid the devastation was probably not “pleasant.”