Trump mocked reporter 'in a sing-song voice' after 'shouting' about coverage of his presser

09 August 2024

While on his way to a campaign rally in Montana, former President Donald Trump reportedly unleashed on a reporter for the New York Times when complaining about the paper's coverage of his Thursday press conference.

On Thursday, the former president held an hour-long, rambling press conference in which he aired grievances about Vice President Kamala Harris, Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz and the crowds they've been drawing at campaign rallies this week. He made numerous false and debunked claims in the press conference, including one anecdote about flying in a helicopter with Willie Brown — Harris' one-time boyfriend who used to be the mayor of San Francisco, California — in which he said Brown spoke negatively about Harris. He added that the helicopter had to make an emergency landing due to dangerous conditions created by the wildfires they were surveying.

"Willie was — he was a little concerned,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “So I know him, but I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about her. But this is what you’re telling me, anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened with Kamala. But he — he, I don’t know, maybe he’s changed his tune. But he — he was not a fan of hers very much, at that point."

But according to the paper, Willie Brown was never on that flight. Rather, Trump was on the helicopter with then-California Governor Jerry Brown and then-Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom. Jerry Brown told the Times that Harris' name never came up in their conversation, and that there was no emergency landing.

"I was on a helicopter with Jerry Brown and Trump, and it didn’t go down," Newsom told the paper, adding that the former president's press conference was an "act of desperation" to try to inject his campaign with new energy. He noted that during the flight, Trump blamed the fire in Paradise, California (which he erroneously referred to as "Pleasure") on fallen tree branches and suggested that the state rake the forest floor.

"It was back when we were making raking the forest great again," Newsom said.

In a follow-up article on Friday, the Times' Maggie Haberman reported that while Trump's plane was sidelined due to unspecified "mechanical issues" with his plane, he "shouted" at an unnamed Times reporter while doubling down on the lie about flying on the helicopter with Willie Brown. Trump said he was "probably going to sue" the paper over its reporting.

"We have the flight records of the helicopter," Trump reportedly said. When asked to produce them, Haberman wrote that the 45th president of the United States "responded mockingly, repeating the request in a sing-song voice."

"As of early Friday evening, he had not provided them," Haberman wrote.

Click here to read the Times' report in full (subscription required).

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