Ever since Donald Trump claimed Thursday that Willie Brown punched Vice President Kamala Harris years ago during a helicopter ride, the former president has insisted the story is true. That’s despite the fact that Brown, the former speaker of the California House of Representatives, has said he never did business with Trump, much less flew with him.
But it turns out another California official did.
In an interview Saturday, Nate Holden, a former longtime Los Angeles city councilman and state senator, vividly recalled what happened one day in 1990 when he was invited by Trump to fly from Manhattan to Atlantic City in his helicopter.
It was noon, Holden said, and he had just been served a drink when suddenly the hydraulic system failed, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in New Jersey.
On Thursday, Trump said in impromptu remarks to reporters that he and Brown “were in a helicopter going to a certain place together, and there was an emergency landing.” Trump said, “It was not a pleasant landing, and Willie, he was — he was a little worried. So I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he’s told me some terrible things about him.” [Harris].”
Holden, 95, didn’t believe Trump could have confused the two men – “the short black guy from Northern California and the tall black guy from Southern California. But as they say, we all look alike,” he said with a laugh.
The Trump campaign has not commented on what appears, at best, to be a case of mistaken identity and, worse, a fabricated story intended to discredit Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
After Brown denied ever taking the helicopter with Trump, national and international media outlets picked up on the story. And Trump not only stood by his statements, but also posted on social media that he had evidence in the form of “flight logs, maintenance records, and witnesses” to back up his version of events.
But another person on board that helicopter was Barbara Res, a former senior executive in charge of construction and development at the Trump Organization. In her 2013 book, “All Alone on the 68th Floor,” Res largely corroborates Holden’s account of what happened.
“As we came to a stop over the Hudson, the helicopter began to shake,” she wrote. “A short time later, the pilot let us know that he had lost some instruments and that we had to make an emergency landing. At this point, the helicopter was shaking like crazy. Donald likes to tell the story that Nate, an African-American, became white, but as I recall, Donald was quite white himself.”
Holden said Saturday that he called Brown shortly after seeing Trump’s comments about the helicopter incident on television. “I just thought Donald Trump had a problem. He’s had two near fatal accidents, one with Willie Brown and one with me,” Holden said. So he asked Brown, “Willie, were you in a helicopter with Trump that nearly crashed?”
Holden was on the helicopter with Trump to discuss the Manhattan real estate developer’s desire to build on the site of the historic Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Mid-Wilshire neighborhood. Holden represented the district at the time.
Trump “wanted to meet with Nate because Nate was very, very influential,” Res said in an interview, noting that she brought Holden to New York. “And when we went to the meeting, Donald said, ‘I can’t, I have to go to Atlantic City. Let’s have our meeting in the helicopter.’” (Trump’s plan for the Wilshire site became mired in litigation and never came to fruition.)
Holden said he knew Trump was trying to impress him. On board, Holden recalled, “Trump said, ‘Look at the horizon. It’s the most beautiful in the world.'”
But Holden was not impressed and said he was furious when the aircraft developed mechanical problems. “I couldn’t believe they didn’t maintain their helicopter. I was making a fuss because they put my life in danger.” Just a year earlier, in 1989, three Trump casino executives had been killed, along with two others, when a helicopter crashed over Fork River, New Jersey.
As for Trump, Holden said: “He was speechless. He went white as snow, glued to his seat.”
“I didn’t see any signs of real danger,” Res said. “Trump was terrified. He was scared, not at all,” Res said. “He just lost three executives on the flight he said he was supposed to be on, when of course he wasn’t supposed to be on that flight. But, you know, why not use three good dead employees?”
Similarly, both Res and Holden said Trump told his own version of what happened in the helicopter with Holden.
“Trump knew that Willie Brown was the Speaker of the Assembly and Nate Holden was a city councilman, so he wanted to make that more important,” Res said. “He also wanted to include a comment about Harris, and I don’t think you can connect Harris to Holden.”
Holden said: “It makes the story juicier.”
