Jon Stewart poked fun at former President Trump on Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show” for appearing to confuse two Black politicians while recounting a story about hearing negative things about now-Vice President Harris during a troubled helicopter flight.
In Trump’s recollection, which he relayed to reporters at a press conference last week, he was in the chopper with ex-San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, a former romantic interest of Harris’s from the 90s, who “told me terrible things about her.”
“Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing, but he told me terrible things about her,” Trump had said while taking questions at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
Stewart played the clip during his Monday night broadcast, first saying, jokingly, “Donald Trump doesn’t need the fake news media and their AI [artificial intelligence] crowd shots to win this thing because he’s got inside information on Kamala Harris from someone she used to date.”
After playing Trump’s version, Stewart went in for a closer look.
“You were in a helicopter with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who famously dated Kamala Harris, and while the helicopter was going down — as you were plunging to your imminent death — former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown turns to you and says, ‘This might not mean anything to you now. But do you, do you remember that lady I was going out with? The prosecutor? Well, before we die, I just want you to know: She’s the worst,’” Stewart said, to laughter.
“’I do not want to meet my maker without giving you that piece of information. If you survive, you may need it,’” Stewart continued, in his imagined voice of Brown.
Stewart suggested that a memory of such a harrowing experience must be “seared not only into the memory of Donald Trump, but also into the memory of former mayor Willie Brown.”
He then played an interview exchange, however, where Brown refutes the account entirely, saying, “No, I have not. Are you kidding me?” when asked whether he has ever been on a helicopter with Trump.
“I laughed. I just assumed that he was on a helicopter ride with somebody Black and he made a mistake and thought it was me,” Brown added in the MSNBC interview, which Stewart played on his show.
Stewart then pointed to another report suggesting Trump confused Brown with former Los Angeles City Council member Nate Holden, also a Black politician from California, who said he had a “bumpy ride” with Trump in the ’90s.
“Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco. I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles,” Holden said to Politico, in reporting televised on the Monday broadcast. “I guess we all look alike.”
Stewart responded, saying, “Hey, Donald Trump is not racist. He just meets a lot of people on death helicopters, and he needs some mnemonic device help.”
He offered some suggestions, including, “If the chopper goes down, that’s not Willie Brown,” and “If the flight’s not going great, you’re probably riding with Nate.”
The New York Times earlier reported that Trump had been in a helicopter ride with former California Gov. Jerry Brown (D). Current Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who said he was also on the flight, suggested the same last name could have caused the mix-up in Trump’s story.
Trump doubled down on his story, however, after the Times’s reporting.
“Two Failing New York Times ‘reporters’ questioned my story about a forced landing of a helicopter, in a field, with former Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, and others,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “First of all, it was in New Jersey, not California, and it was Willie Brown, not former Governor Jerry Brown. So far they are about as accurate as they are with their other stories about me.”
“He’s just angling for another ride in Trump’s jet (helicopter!). But now Willie doesn’t remember? No, he remembers!” the former president added.
The former San Francisco mayor has also recently praised the vice president, saying they’re still good friends and he hopes she wins the presidency.