Willie Brown threatens to sue Trump over ‘fake’ story of near-fatal helicopter ride

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Former San FranciscoMayor Willie Brown has threatened to sue Donald Trump after the former president told an allegedly completely fictious story about him.

During a lie-filled press conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, the former president recounted what now appears to be a tall tale about a helicopter ride he claims he once took with Brown.

In the rambling story, Trump claimed that he and 90-year-old Brown – who briefly dated Kamala Harris in the mid-1990s – narrowly survived a helicopter crash and that, during the near-death experience, the mayor had spoken ill about his former girlfriend.

“Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, maybe this is the end,” Trump said.

“We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing.”

Despite fearing they were near death, the Republican presidential nominee claimed that Brown took that moment to slander his former lover.

“This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie, he was – he was a little concerned. So I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about [Kamala Harris],” Trump continued.

Not long after Trump had finished speaking, Brown rubbished every single aspect of his story from the helicopter ride together to him criticizing Harris.

“I’ve never done business with Donald Trump, let’s start with that,” Brown told KRON4.

“And secondly, I don’t think I’d want to ride on the same helicopter with him,” he added. “I could not envision thinking of Kamala Harris in any negative way. She’s a good friend a long time ago, an absolutely beautiful woman, smart as all hell, very successful, electorally speaking.”

The former California State Assembly speaker said that Trump’s tale was a work of “creative fiction”, adding: “It’s so far-fetched, it’s unbelievable”.

When asked if he had said anything negative about Harris to Trump, Brown vehemently denied it.

“It’s just as accurate as all of the other components of what you’re asking me about,” Brown told The Chronicle. “No, not accurate at all.”

He added “Hell, no. I wouldn’t say anything bad about any woman to him. I would know better. It might encourage him to take a [verbal] shot.”

Now, Brown has said he might sue the former president over the apparently false story because “somebody has got to make sure that he stops lying.”

“If he keeps it up, at some point, I’m going to give him a taste of his own conduct,” Brown told CBS News. “If he sues The New York Times for printing that I said he lied, I’m going to sue him.”

Trump had threatened to sue to the New York Times after it ran a story featuring Brown calling the former president a liar.

Other figures meanwhile have speculated that Trump might have confused them with Brown.

Former California governor Jerry Brown, his successor Gavin Newsom and Trump flew on a helicopter together in 2018 over the smouldering remains of the town of Paradise to survey the damage from the Camp Fire.

Both Jerry Brown and Newsom told The New York Times that while it was a bumpy ride, there was no emergency landing and no talk of Harris.

Meanwhile, Nate Holden, a former California state senator, told Politico he thought Trump may have been talking about him. He said he and the former president were in a helicopter that almost crashed back in 1990.

“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,” Holden told Politico. “I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.”