By James Oliphant and Alexandra Ulmer

(Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday insisted he was in a near-fatal helicopter journey with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, though Brown mentioned the incident by no means occurred and one other politician mentioned he had been on an analogous flight with Trump a long time earlier.

Trump on Thursday associated the story of virtually dying on a helicopter with Brown, who had briefly dated Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris a number of a long time in the past.

“I went down in a helicopter with him,” Trump mentioned in a rambling press convention. “We thought maybe this is the end. 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.”

Trump additionally asserted Willie Brown informed him “terrible things” about Harris.

Brown, a longtime Democratic energy dealer who additionally served as speaker of the California State Meeting, informed the San Francisco Chronicle after Trump’s press convention that he was by no means in a helicopter with the previous president. He additionally denied that he had ever mentioned something disparaging about Harris to Trump.

One other Black former California politician, Nate Holden, informed Politico late on Friday that he had been in a turbulent helicopter journey with Trump in New Jersey, seemingly in 1990.

Earlier on Friday, Trump had dug in, insisting in posts on his Reality Social platform that his helicopter journey had been with Willie Brown and that it had occurred in New Jersey, not California.

“There were “Logs,” Maintenance Records, and Witnesses. There was also a story on “Willie and Me,” Trump said.

He did not provide any of the evidence he referred to in the post.

Asked to share the evidence Trump mentioned, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung referred Reuters to a post of his on X of a picture from a page in the 2023 “Letters to Trump” book. It contains a picture of Trump and Willie Brown, and quotes Trump as saying: “We truly had an emergency touchdown in a helicopter collectively.”

Asked about Holden’s account of being in a helicopter with Trump, Cheung said: “Seems like Holden is both mendacity or is having reminiscence points.”

Holden, a former city councilman and state senator from Los Angeles, scoffed at Trump’s account, Politico reported.

“Willie is the brief Black man dwelling in San Francisco,” Holden was quoted as saying. “I am a tall Black man dwelling in Los Angeles. I assume all of us look alike.”

Holden added that Harris was not brought up during the helicopter ride. “He both blended it up. Or, he made it up,” Holden said of Trump.

Holden did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.

As president in 2018, Trump also toured fire-ravaged portions of California by helicopter with then-California Governor Jerry Brown, NBC News reported. A representative for former Governor Brown, who is white, told the New York Times there was no emergency landing and Harris was not discussed during that flight.

Trump said he would “in all probability” sue the New York Times over its coverage of his comments on the helicopter story, according to a Times story on Friday. Trump disparaged the newspaper on Truth Social, attacking its reporter Maggie Haberman as “Maggot Hagermann.”

The Occasions didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The Harris marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the obvious mix-up.

When 81-year-old President Joe Biden was nonetheless the Democratic candidate within the Nov. 5 election, Trump, 78, regularly mocked his opponent’s psychological acuity and provided to take a cognitive take a look at, arguing Biden was too infirm to be president.

Biden has since been changed atop the ticket by the 59-year-old Harris, forcing Trump to scramble to seek out new strains of assault.

Republicans have insinuated that Willie Brown is partly chargeable for Harris’ rise in politics, though the 2 broke up within the mid-Nineteen Nineties and Harris didn’t win her first election till 2002. Whereas the 2 had been courting, Brown appointed Harris, then a younger prosecutor, to 2 well-paying jobs on state boards.