In November 2018, President Donald Trump and Governor Jerry Brown of California visiting a neighbourhood destroyed by a wildfire in Paradise, California. Trump and Brown also viewed the damage by helicopter. Photo / Tom Brenner, The New York Times
In November 2018, President Donald Trump and Governor Jerry Brown of California visiting a neighbourhood destroyed by a wildfire in Paradise, California. Trump and Brown also viewed the damage by helicopter. Photo / Tom Brenner, The New York Times
In a news conference, the former president recounted a brush with death alongside Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor. A few aspects of the story don’t hold up to scrutiny.
Former President Donald Trump told a jaw-dropping story Thursday about nearly dying in a helicopter ride with WillieBrown, the former California politician and ex-boyfriend of his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
There was only one problem with the story. Or maybe two. Or maybe three.
It wasn’t the famous former San Francisco mayor on the helicopter flight at all. It was Governor Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, who bears little resemblance to Willie Brown.
There was also no emergency landing, and the helicopter’s passengers were never in any danger at all, according to Governor Gavin Newsom, who was also on the flight.
Jerry Brown, who left office in January 2019, said through a spokesperson, “There was no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris.”
“I call complete BS,” Newsom said, laughing out loud.
Governor Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, who bears little resemblance to Willie Brown. Photo / Getty Images
Trump’s errant account, delivered during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, came in response to a reporter who asked a leading question about Harris’ past relationship with Willie Brown, and whether Trump thought it might have had something to do with her career trajectory.
Harris and Brown dated in 1994 and 1995, while she was a prosecutor in Alameda County, which includes Oakland, and he was the speaker of the California State Assembly, and he appointed her to two state boards. He was – and still is – married to Blanche Brown, but they have long lived separate lives.
“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump responded. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him.”
He went on to tell a cinematic tale of a close call with death – and of politically advantageous gossip on death’s door.
“We thought maybe this was the end,” Trump said. “We were in a helicopter, going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.
“And Willie was — he was a little concerned. So I know him, but I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about her. But this is what you’re telling me, anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened with Kamala. But he — he, I don’t know, maybe he’s changed his tune. But he — he was not a fan of hers very much, at that point.”
Reached on his cellphone just after Trump’s news conference — at his regular lunch spot at Sam’s Grill in downtown San Francisco — Willie Brown, 90, said the whole story was false. He had never ridden in a helicopter with Trump, he said. He had never nearly perished in any helicopter ride. And he remained an avid supporter of Harris’.
Brown, who loves regaling anybody who will listen with stories and who penned a weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle until 2021, added, laughing: “You know me well enough to know that if I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it!”
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said he had never ridden in a helicopter with Trump. Photo / Getty Images
Harris ended their relationship nearly three decades ago, but Brown said he had always been a big fan and supporter of hers. “No hard feelings,” he said.
The helicopter ride that Trump took in 2018 with Governor Jerry Brown and with Newsom, then the governor-elect of California, was to survey damage wrought by the deadly Camp fire in the town of Paradise, in the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Sacramento.
Newsom’s recollection of the occasion was vivid.
“I was on a helicopter with Jerry Brown and Trump, and it didn’t go down,” Newsom said in an interview. He said Trump had, however, repeatedly brought up the possibility of crashing.
The subject of Harris, with whom Newsom had enjoyed a friendly rivalry, did not come up on the plane ride, he added. “We talked about everyone else, but not Kamala,” he said with a laugh.
Newsom called Trump’s news conference “an act of desperation” prompted by what he called Harris’ momentum.
Trump’s visit to the burned forest with Brown and Newsom did generate headlines, but not because of anything that occurred on their helicopter ride. Rather, it was because, during a news conference after landing at the scene, Trump attributed the wildfire to too many fallen, dead tree branches and said the answer to solving California’s wildfire crisis was to rake the forest floors.
“It was back when we were making raking the forest great again,” Newsom said.
