Joe McConnell
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has dismissed as “fantasy” Donald Trump’s story that they once endured a terrifying helicopter ride together.
The former president said on Thursday that he and Mr Brown had “crashed” together in a helicopter and that Mr Brown had said he was “a little concerned”.
“We thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter … and it was an emergency landing. It was not a pleasant landing.”
Trump later insisted the story was true in a call to The New York Timessaying he “would probably sue” without providing further details.
Mr Brown, 90, told US media that he had never shared a helicopter with Mr Trump, adding: “I don’t think I would want to travel in the same helicopter with him.”
Mr. Trump, 78, appeared to confuse Mr. Brown with Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, with whom he shared a helicopter ride in 2018 to see the aftermath of the Paradise wildfires. Gavin Newsom, the state’s current governor, was also on the flight.
Both men told American media that there had been no emergency landing or danger. “I would call that complete bullshit,” Mr. Newsom told the New York Times.
Trump told his story in response to a question about Willie Brown’s relationship with Kamala Harris, 59, in the mid-1990s, when she was a prosecutor in California.
Mr. Trump was asked whether he thought the relationship had played a role in Ms. Harris’s career path.
“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said, before discussing the flight and claiming that the former mayor had told him “terrible things” about Ms. Harris.
“He played a major role in what happened with Kamala,” Trump said.
The former mayor also denied this claim.
“It’s so far-fetched, it’s unbelievable,” he said said local TV station KRON. “I couldn’t imagine thinking negatively about Kamala Harris.
“She’s been a good friend for a long time, a beautiful woman, smart as hell, very successful, electorally speaking.
“He was doing what Donald does best: his creative storytelling.”
A spokesperson for Jerry Brown also told US media that the former governor had not spoken about Ms Harris during the 2018 helicopter flight.
Mr. Trump’s remarks during an hour-long news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate come as a recent national poll shows Ms. Harris beating him among likely voters.
A poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College from August 5 to 9 puts Harris ahead of Trump by 50 percent to 46 percent in three key swing states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The news comes after a recent YouGov poll, conducted August 4-6, suggested she would win the popular vote: 45 percent of respondents said they would vote for her in November, compared to 43 percent for Trump.
