Former Los Angeles City Councilman and California State Senator Nate Holden said Friday that he was with former President Donald Trump in the helicopter ride that crash-landed, even though Trump said it was former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
“Willie is the short black guy who lives in San Francisco,” Holden said an interview with Politico late friday “I’m a tall black guy living in Los Angeles.”
“I guess we all look the same,” he added.
Trump told reporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday that he was involved in an emergency helicopter landing with Brown, who has since dismissed Trump’s account as “clearly wrong” during a phone call with CNN. “I’ve never been in a helicopter with him in my life,” Brown said.
Thursday was not the first time Trump referred to the incident as something he had experienced with Brown. In a book, “Letters to Trump,” the former president recalled the incident as “a little scary for both of us.” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pointed that out on Saturday in a post on X.
Holden said he was in contact with Trump’s team in the 1990s when Trump sought to build on the site of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, in the district Holden represented at the time, according to Politico.
Holden recalled meeting Trump at Trump Tower before departing for Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they planned to tour Trump’s since-closed Taj Mahal casino. Also on board was Barbara Res, Trump’s former vice president for construction, who told Politico that the man on the helicopter was definitely Holden.
Res recounted the experience in her book “All Alone on the 68th Floor,” where she said the helicopter landed safely in New Jersey after the pilot said they would have to make an emergency landing. She recalled Trump joking that Holden was scared on the flight, and Holden noted to Politico that it was Trump who was “scared.”
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com