Trump recalls scary helicopter trip with Harris's ex — but did it really happen?

Former United States president Donald Trump recently recalled a scary helicopter trip with former mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown, who had been "a little concerned" as they went "down" together. 

According to the BBC, while describing the events of the helicopter ride, Trump, 78, said: "We thought maybe this was the end. We were in a helicopter... and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing."

However, Brown, 90, has dismissed the story as "fiction", saying that he had never shared a helicopter with Trump, adding: "I don't think I'd want to ride on the same helicopter with him."

Trump seemed to have mistaken Brown for Jerry Brown, the ex-governor of California, with whom he had travelled in a helicopter in 2018 to visit the aftermath of the Paradise wildfires with the current state governor Gavin Newsom also on the flight, according to the BBC.

Both Brown and Newsom told US media there had been no emergency landing or danger. 

"I call complete BS," Newsom told The New York Times.

Trump's story came in response to a question about Willie Brown's relationship with US Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, in the mid-1990s while she was a California prosecutor.

The former president was asked whether he thought the relationship had played a role in Harris's career journey.

"Well, I know Willie Brown very well," Trump said, before speaking of the flight and claiming the former mayor had told him "terrible things" about Harris.

"He had a big part in what happened with Kamala," Trump said.

The former mayor also denied this and said: "That's so far-fetched, it's unbelievable. I could not envision thinking of Kamala Harris in any negative way.

"She's a good friend a long time ago, absolutely beautiful woman, smart as all hell, very successful, electorally speaking. He was doing what Donald does best, his creative fiction."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Jerry Brown also said that he had not discussed Harris on the helicopter flight in 2018.

Trump's remarks at an hour-long news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate come as a recent national poll shows Harris is beating him among likely voters.