Willie Brown has criticized Donald Trump for his threat to New York Times for reporting on a story the presidential candidate told that the two nearly crashed a helicopter long ago. In Trump’s account, he and Brown nearly died when the helicopter had to make an emergency landing after the California politician regaled the billionaire with his dislike of Kamala Harris. Brown insists none of that happened and now threatens to strike back with a tool familiar to Trump. “If he keeps this up, I’m going to give him a taste of his own behavior at some point,” Brown said, CBS News reports. “If he sues the government, New York Times because I said he lied, I’m going to sue him.”
When asked by reporters in San Francisco on Saturday, Brown said he was not waiting for Trump to suddenly say he was apologizing for spreading the story; he would rather not hear anything from the former president. “No, I don’t want an apology from him,” Brown said. “I don’t want him to mention my name.” Joe Cotchett, Brown’s lawyer, said his client has never sued anyone, according to the Just“But you know who’s pushing him to do this? A guy named Trump,” Cotchett said. It would be a defamation suit, Brown said.
A former state senator and city councilman in Los Angeles said he once took a risky helicopter ride with Trump, so the Republican nominee may have confused two black California politicians. “He needs to apologize to Nate Holden; that was his passenger,” Brown said Saturday, according to KRON. Brown said Trump’s intention was to denigrate the Democratic presidential candidate. The former San Francisco mayor said he would “absolutely” file a lawsuit if Trump persists in his position, according to CBS, because “I don’t want an acquaintanceship with Willie Brown to be a negative for anyone, especially someone I care about as much as Vice President Harris.” (More stories about Willie Brown.)
