WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump mixed up two prominent politicians from California when he told a harrowing tale of almost crashing in a helicopter. During a meandering press conference Thursday riddled with false and misleading statements , Trump recalled riding as a passenger in the chopper with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown when it was forced to make an emergency landing. The comments were in response to a question about a relationship between Brown and Vice President Kamala Harris three decades ago.
But Brown has never shared a helicopter with Trump, the former mayor said. Instead, it was former California Gov. Jerry Brown who rode with Trump in a helicopter in 2018 to survey wildfire damage , and no emergency landing was reported.
On Friday night, Politico reported that Nate Holden, a former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator, said he had once ridden with Trump in a helicopter heading to New Jersey that almost crashed. “Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden told Politico. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.
" It was the latest apparent instance of Trump misstating names or telling anecdotes that fail to hold up to scrutiny — in this case, to disparage Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. “I know Willie Brown very well," Trump said about the alleged incident. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him.
We thought maybe this was the end.” He went on: “We were in a helicopt.