Chopper Down

Donald Trump reaffirmed his account on Friday of a near-crash during a helicopter ride with Willie Brown, a prominent Black politician from California. He was so insistent that the event occurred that he threatened to sue The New York Times for reporting otherwise and posted on his social media site, claiming the existence of "Logs, Maintenance Records, and Witnesses" to support his story. Trump, who has been actively seeking to gain support from Black voters, expressed confusion over Brown's inability to recall the incident.

Willie Brown, the 90-year-old former mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly, stated in several interviews that such a trip never took place.

However, it turns out that another Black politician from California did experience an emergency landing in a helicopter with Trump. Nate Holden, 95, a former Los Angeles City Council member and state senator, confirmed in an interview with The Times that he was the one on that flight. Holden recounted an episode from around 1990 when he and Trump were aboard a helicopter that encountered mechanical issues and was forced to make an emergency landing in New Jersey.

Holden recalled that Trump, who was trying to develop the Ambassador Hotel site in Los Angeles, invited him to visit the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. During the helicopter ride from Manhattan, Trump was enthusiastic about showcasing the skyline. However, the flight took a dangerous turn when the helicopter's hydraulic system failed, causing Trump to become visibly shaken. Holden, who had grown up in New Jersey, was unfazed, though he did recall thoughts of a fatal helicopter crash in 1989 involving three senior executives from Trump's casinos.

As Trump has made age a point of contention against Joe Biden, he may now have to confront scrutiny over his own misstatements, if they indeed turn out to be such. Politics remains a harsh and unforgiving arena where even the slightest misquote can have significant repercussions.