Former President Donald Trump recounted at his press conference a harrowing helicopter flight with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown that ended with a nail-biter of an emergency landing that left both men shaken.
One small snag in the story: It never happened, Brown — and the politicians who were actually on the flight — told the New York Times after the Thursday presser.
"I know Willie Brown very well," Trump told a reporter who asked him about the former mayor's past dating relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris in 1994 and 1995. "In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him."
He claimed the men "thought maybe this was the end," adding: "This was not a pleasant landing."
And "Willie was — he was a little concerned," said Trump.
"So I know him, but I know him pretty well" and he "told me terrible things about" Harris, he insisted. "He was he was not a fan of hers very much, at that point."
Nope, never happened, said Brown, 90, who told the Times that he has never been in a helicopter with Trump, has never experienced a death-defying aircraft landing and has always been and is a big supporter of Kamala Harris.
Trump did share a helicopter flight in 2018, but with former California Governor Jerry Brown and then-California Governor-elect Gavin Newsom.
"I call complete B.S.," Newsom laughingly told the Times about Trump's story.
Willie Brown was not on board, there was no emergency landing and passengers weren't in any danger, though Trump did express his fears about crashing, according to Newsom.
And no one mentioned a word about Kamala Harris, both Newsom and Jerry Brown told the Times.
The men were in the air surveying the damage caused by the deadly Camp Fire in Paradise in the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Sacramento.
Trump made headlines after the flyover when he urged California to "rake" its forests to prevent wildfires, which he falsely claimed Finland did to prevent blazes. Finns took to social media to post selfies of them "raking" a section of forest to mock Trump.
Trump could not be reached for an explanation of the mix-up in his story involving Willie and Jerry Brown.
His lie about the flight was one of several fact-checkers revealed in his press confernce Thursday at Mar-a-Lago.
