Willie Brown to Newsmax: Harris Would Have Excelled Regardless of My Help

Willie Brown, the Democrat former San Francisco mayor and California Assembly speaker who was in a relationship with Kamala Harris during her ascension in politics, talked to Newsmax on Tuesday covering a wide range of issues, including Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Harris reportedly began dating Brown in 1993, when she was 29 and he was 59, the California Assembly speaker and a candidate for mayor of San Francisco. It was a relationship that brought her in contact with many of San Francisco's political and financial wheelers and dealers. Early in 1994, Brown reportedly named her as his appointee to the state's Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, and six months later, he named her to the California Medical Assistance Commission.

"Believe it or not, I attended a wedding for her," Brown said. "One of her girlfriends, the daughter of some people that I know, and it was my first ever exposure to her. During the course of the conversations, during the social hours of that wedding, I became intrigued with this very attractive but incredibly smart, talkative person. That's how I met her."

Into 1994, press accounts described Harris as Brown's girlfriend, even though he was still married but estranged from his wife Blanche. The relationship reportedly ended late in 1995 or early in 1996. In 1998, Harris became assistant district attorney in San Francisco and was elected district attorney in 2002.

Brown was asked whether Harris would have climbed the political ladder with or without his help.

"Absolutely," he said. "She's there based on her skill set. As I indicated, she was a part of the city attorney's office in San Francisco, and she earned every bit of everything she was involved in there. And that translates into much of what she talks about on the stage. I didn't have anything to do with that. That city attorney, she competed appropriately for that position. She did the same thing as an assistant district attorney in Alameda County. I did not know her when she had that particular job, and so this is a woman who has, at all times, managed to be competitive enough in whatever she pursued to win it."

Brown said he has known Trump for about 30 years.

"When I knew him first, it was in a social situation involving friends of his and friends of mine who, celebrating a birthday in Nevada," Brown said. "I also subsequently had him inquire about the school board of Los Angeles when he was trying to buy the property [of] that hotel called the Ambassador, where Robert Kennedy was assassinated [in 1968].

"He wanted to know from me what I thought about the politics there, the bureaucracy there, and what have you. And I urged him to stay away."

Brown said it might be a stretch to say he was fond of Trump.

"I didn't know him well enough to have any opinion, negative or positive, about him, except to say he seemed harmless," Brown said. "He was a Democrat, by the way, at that time, and he was kind of an interesting and fun person."

Brown was asked for a prediction of who would win the presidential election in November.

"I think I will be seriously regretting that I never stayed with her," Brown said, smiling, referring to Harris. "She'll be the president."

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