Former US President Donald Trump recently recalled a terrifying helicopter ride with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who was “a little worried” as they “fell” together.
According to the BBCDescribing the events of the helicopter flight, Trump, 78, said: “We thought maybe this was the end. We were in a helicopter … and there was an emergency landing. It was not a pleasant landing.”
However, Brown, 90, has dismissed the story as “fiction”, saying he had never shared a helicopter with Trump and adding: “I don't think I would want to ride in the same helicopter with him.”
Trump appeared to have confused Brown with Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, with whom he had traveled by helicopter in 2018 to visit the aftermath of the Paradise wildfires with the state's current governor, Gavin Newsom, also on the flight, according to BBC.
Both Brown and Newsom told US media there was no emergency landing or danger.
“I consider this to be complete nonsense,” Newsom said. The New York Times.
Trump's story came in response to a question about Willie Brown's relationship with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, in the mid-1990s while she was a California prosecutor.
The former president was asked if he thought the relationship had played a role in Harris's career path.
“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said, before discussing the flight and claiming the former mayor had said “terrible things” to him about Harris.
“He played a big role in what happened with Kamala,” Trump said.
The former mayor also denied it, saying: “That's so crazy, it's unbelievable. I couldn't imagine thinking about Kamala Harris in a negative way.”
“She's a good friend from way back, an absolutely beautiful woman, very intelligent, very successful, electorally speaking. He was doing what Donald does best, his creative fiction.”
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Jerry Brown also said he had not spoken about Harris on the helicopter flight in 2018.
Trump's comments at an hourlong news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate come as a recent national poll shows Harris is outpacing him among likely voters.
