Trump claims he has flight records of helicopter emergency landing

Republican Party candidate for president Donald Trump on Friday evening maintained his position that the helicopter made an emergency landing with Willie Brown, although the former San Francisco mayor denied that such an incident ever took place.

Trump told the New York Times he had documents to support his claims but would not release them.

During a news conference Thursday, Trump confused Brown with former California Gov. Jerry Brown while telling a bizarre and false story about a near-death experience in a helicopter.

The former president, in a dramatic recollection from Mar-a-Lago, told the story of how he almost crashed while flying with Willie Brown, who briefly dated Vice President Kamala Harris decades ago.

“I went down in a helicopter with him; we thought that might be the end,” Trump said. “We were flying together in a helicopter to a certain location and we made an emergency landing. It was not a pretty landing.”

Trump claimed that Brown had made critical comments about Harris, but the former mayor denied the comments, stating that he had always remained on good terms with his former protégé, even after their split.

“And Willie was — he was a little concerned,” Trump explained. “So I know him, but I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me some terrible things about her. But that’s what you’re telling me, anyway, I think. But he had a big hand in what happened with Kamala. But he — he, I don’t know, maybe he changed his mind. But he — he wasn’t a big fan of hers, at that point.”

However, new details indicate that Trump likely confused the two California politicians.

Brown, a longtime Democratic quarterback who also served as speaker of the California State Assembly, told the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump’s news conference that he had never ridden in a helicopter with the former president.

“You would know if I fell in a helicopter with Trump,” he told the newspaper. He also denied ever saying anything disparaging about Harris to Trump.

The NYT reported that Willie Brown was not on board the helicopter at all, but Gov. Jerry Brown, former Gov. of California. Current Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was also on board, said there was no emergency landing and the helicopter passengers were never in danger.

“I think it’s complete nonsense,” Newsom said.

So what happened aboard the helicopter?

In 2018, then-President Trump and then-California Governor Jerry Brown traveled by helicopter through wildfire-ravaged parts of California.

Brown, who left office in January 2019, confirmed to CNN through a spokesperson that there was no emergency landing and there was no discussion about Kamala Harris.

The Trump campaign and Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday about the alleged mix-up.

When President Joe Biden, 81, was still running for re-election, Trump, 78, frequently urged him to take a cognitive test, saying he was unfit to hold office.

Biden was later replaced by Harris, 59, forcing Trump to seek new lines of attack.

Reuters contributed to this article