Donald Trump is under fire for appearing to confuse two black men while telling a story about an emergency helicopter landing years ago. Trump told the story during a recent press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. When asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’s prior relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Trump said he knows Mr. Brown well and had previously been in a helicopter flight with him, which landed in an emergency. However, Brown quickly stated that Trump was lying and insisted he had never been in a helicopter with the former President. He said Mr. Trump was attempting to “degrade” the Vice President with lies.
Since then, former Los Angeles city councilmember Nate Holden said Trump was probably talking about him. The 95-year-old had a business relationship with Trump in the 1990s, and the pair did a chopper tour around Atlantic City, New Jersey, more than three decades ago. In response to Trump’s press conference, Mr. Holden said, “Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco. I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles. I guess we all look alike.”
During the same press conference, Mr. Trump focused on crowd sizes and claimed to have spoken to larger audiences than Martin Luther King. He again questioned Harris’s intelligence and said that as a woman, she “represents a certain group of people.”
Additionally, he signaled a shift in his view on the availability of the abortion drug mifepristone and said he would direct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban it. He added, however, that he would like to see the issue put to the public vote in individual states. Trump also dismissed the abortion issue as insignificant and said it will not have an impact on November’s election result. Nevertheless, polls tell a different story.
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey released in July revealed that 57% of Americans will take abortion rights into account when they cast their vote this November.
Regarding his lack of campaigning in battleground states, Trump said he doesn’t need to campaign in those states because he is already winning. Polls similarly reveal a different picture, however, and show Harris taking a lead in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
