Donald Trump continues to insist that he once had a terrifying helicopter ride with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, even as Brown dismisses the story as “fiction”.
But it turns out another California politician, Nate Holden, accompanied Trump on the tumultuous helicopter ride decades ago, US media reported.
Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Holden are black.
The former president said at a press conference that he and Mr Brown had “gone down” together in a helicopter and that Mr Brown had been “a little nervous”.
The story became an issue after Trump recounted it on Thursday in response to a question about Mr Brown’s relationship with Kamala Harris. The couple dated in the 1990s.
Trump was asked whether he thought the relationship played any role in Harris’s career trajectory. At the time, Harris was a prosecutor and was elected district attorney in San Francisco in 2002.
“Well, I knew Willie Brown very well,” Trump said, before recounting his memories of the flight.
“We thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter… and had an emergency landing. It was not a comfortable landing.”
He later claimed the former mayor had told him “terrible things” about Ms Harris.
“He played a big role in what happened to Kamala,” Trump said.
Mr Brown, 90, told US media he had never flown in a helicopter with Trump, adding: “I don’t think I would want to fly in a helicopter with him.”
He also denied saying anything disparaging about Ms Harris.
“It’s so far-fetched, it’s unbelievable,” he said. speak local TV station KRON. “I can’t imagine thinking of Kamala Harris in any negative way.
“She’s been a good friend for a long time, a gorgeous woman, incredibly smart, and very successful in the election.
“He did what Donald did best, which was write novels.”
Despite the former San Francisco mayor’s flat denial, Trump insisted the story was true in a phone call to New York Timessaid he “may sue” without elaborating.
Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung posted a photo of a page from Trump’s book “Letters to Trump” showing the former president posing with Mr. Brown and included a caption referring to the helicopter incident.
Meanwhile, Mr Holden, 95, a former Los Angeles city council member and state senator, told US media outlets that he had a clear memory of the helicopter ride with Trump.
In the 1990s, Trump attempted to develop real estate in Los Angeles.
Mr Holden said they had a very chaotic helicopter ride around 1990, during a visit to Trump’s Atlantic City casino.
The helicopter suffered mechanical problems and was forced to make an emergency landing in New Jersey.
Others speculated that Trump, 78, may have confused Willie Brown with Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, with whom he took a helicopter tour in 2018 to visit the aftermath of the Paradise wildfire. Gavin Newsom, the state’s current governor, was also on the flight.
But both men told US media there was no emergency or dangerous landing on that flight.
Trump’s remarks at an hour-long press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort came amid recent polls showing him trailing behind Ms Harris.
A poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College from August 5 to 9 showed Ms. Harris leading Mr. Trump by 50% to 46% in three key battleground states — Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Ms Harris with a small advantage in the popular vote, although Mr Trump still leads in some of the most important swing states.
