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Trump spoke of harrowing helicopter ride, emergency landing with Willie Brown. Brown says it didn’t happen
GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump mixed up two prominent politicians from California when he told a harrowing tale of almost crashing in a helicopter.
During a meandering press conference Thursday, Trump recalled riding as a passenger in the helicopter with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown when it was forced to make an emergency landing. He was responding to a question about a relationship between Brown and Vice President Kamala Harris three decades ago.
But Brown has never shared a helicopter with Trump, the former mayor said. Instead, it was former California Gov. Jerry Brown who rode with Trump in a helicopter in 2018 to survey wildfire damage, and no emergency landing was reported.
“I know Willie Brown very well,” Mr. Trump said about the alleged incident. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this was the end.”
“We were in a helicopter, going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing,” he said. “This was not a pleasant landing.”
Trump said Brown also told him “terrible things” about Harris. “He was not a fan of hers very much, at that point.”
But Brown told the San Francisco Chronicle that he’s never been in a helicopter with Trump.
“You would have known if I had gone down on a helicopter with Trump,” Brown told the paper.
The longtime Democratic politician also said he has never disparaged Harris to Trump.
“Hell, no,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t say anything bad about any woman to him.” Brown also told the Chronicle he hasn’t spoken with Harris in three or four years.
Former California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and Trump did ride in a helicopter to survey wildfire damage in 2018. But no problems with the flight were reported.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was also on the aircraft. A spokesperson for Newsom, Izzy Gardon, said Friday there was no problem with the flight, no emergency landing and no conversation about Harris.
The two Browns each have public-sector careers spanning decades in California. Willie Brown, 90, is Black. Jerry Brown, 86, is White.
Willie Brown’s long-ago relationship with Harris has resurfaced since she became the Democratic nominee for the White House. Now that Trump faces her in his bid for a second term, he and other Republicans have used the relationship to lob attacks suggesting Harris didn’t earn her political positions legitimately.
Brown was serving as speaker of the California State Assembly in the 1990s when he and Harris were in a relationship. Brown had separated from his wife in 1982.
Harris, 59, spent years as a prosecutor in the Bay Area before her elevation as the state’s attorney general in 2010 and then election as U.S. senator in 2016. She has been married to Doug Emhoff since 2014.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt declined to explain the discrepancies in Trump’s story when asked about it Friday on Newsmax.
“I would just refer you to President Trump’s statement and what he said yesterday,” Leavitt said. “The president has a lot of amazing stories from his life.”
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Wagon rolls over at Wisconsin apple orchard injuring about 25 children and adults