Former President Donald Trump appeared to confuse the former mayor of San Francisco on Thursday Willie Brown with the former governor of California. Jerry Brown when recounting what he described as a near-death experience.
During a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said he once flew in a helicopter with Willie Brown that “crashed” when asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ previous relationship with the former mayor and whether he thought the relationship played a role in her career path.
“I actually went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end. We were in a helicopter together going to a certain location and there was an emergency landing. It was not a pleasant landing and Willie was, he was a little concerned,” Trump said. “So I know him. I know him pretty well.”
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle after the press conference, Willie Brown, who dated Harris in San Francisco years ago, denied several aspects of Trump’s story.
“You would have known if I had crashed in a helicopter with Trump,” he said, according to the newspaper. “I’ve never been in a helicopter with Trump.”
In 2018, Trump was in a helicopter with Jerry Brown and his successor, then-Governor-elect Gavin Newsomon the day they were touring Paradise, California, a town that had been devastated by wildfires.
A spokesman for Jerry Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening. A spokesman for Newsom confirmed to NBC News that Newsom was aboard the helicopter, but said there was no emergency landing and they were not in danger. The governor initially denied Trump’s story in comments to The New York Times.
During Thursday’s press conference, Trump also claimed that Willie Brown had told him “horrible things about” Harris and that Brown “wasn’t a big fan of hers at the time.”
Brown denied making negative comments about Harris in the Chronicle.
“No, that’s not true at all,” he told the newspaper.
Willie Brown did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, did not respond to questions from NBC News about whether Trump had confused the two California Democrats. He replied: “Slick Willie has told some interesting stories about Kamala Harris.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
