>>7922070 (pb)

Kobe Bryant Dies In Helicopter Crash

TMZ has confirmed that basketball legend Kobe Bryant - one of the biggest sports stars in the world - died Sunday morning in a helicopter crash over Calabasas, a tiny city in LA County known as a haven for celebrities. He was 41. Though many online wished that news of his death was fake or some kind of sick joke……several local news outlets have confirmed the story. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Per TMZ, Kobe has famously used a helicopter to travel for years, even when he was still playing with the LA Lakers. He was known for commuting from his home in Newport Beach to the Staples Center in his Sikorsky S-76 chopper. Kobe was traveling with at least three other people in his private chopper when it went down. Local news reported that Malibu deputies responded to what appears to be the scene of the crash, though both TMZ and the LA County Police Twitter feed described the crash as occurring over Calabasas. The tweets didn't name any of the victims.

The LA Times confirmed that the crash happened at around 10 am PT (1 pm ET). The crash ignited a brush fire that made it nearly impossible for rescue personnel to reach the aircraft. They also confirmed that the model of the chopper was a Sikorsky S-76, the same model as Kobe's private chopper.

Many have turned to Bryant's twitter account, hoping he'll fire off a tweet letting the world know it was just a hoax. But his last tweet, sent 16 hours ago (before this morning's crash), praises Lebron James, the new star of Bryant's old team, the Lakers. Bryant was a huge part of what made the Lakers one of the most dominant franchises in the NBA. On Saturday, James passed Bryant on the NBA's all-time scoring list. Bryant is survived by his wife Vanessa, and their four daughters, Gianna, Natalia and Bianca and their newborn Capri.

2020 has been one incredibly strange year - and it's still January.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/kobe-bryant-dies-calabasas-helicopter-crash

https://twitter.com/LASDHQ/status/1221501617255505920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/LASDHQ/status/1221514409056432128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/kobebryant/status/1221276426164269056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

It's 'Possible' Some Democrats May Vote To Acquit Trump: Chris Murphy

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said on Saturday that it's "certainly possible" that some Senate Democrats will vote to acquit President Donald Trump following his impeachment trial, according to Politico. ''I don’t have any reason to think there are Democrats that aren’t with us on procedural votes," Murphy told reporters, adding "It’s certainly possible there are Democrats that are going to vote no on one of the articles, two of the articles. And I don’t have a sense where everybody is on the articles. We haven’t talked about it."

"Schumer may know," added Murphy, "but nobody has done public or private whipping on this." Sen. Chris Murphy said Saturday morning that Democrats are likely to be united on a key procedural vote on calling witnesses next week, though he acknowledged that not all 47 Democrats are guaranteed to vote to convict the president. The Connecticut Democrat said that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other party leaders aren’t whipping senators on the question of the final verdict. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) are considered the most likely senators to be mulling possible acquittal votes. -Politico

In December, Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) said that there may be multiple Senate Democrats who may vote to exonerate Trump, telling Politico "I think we might have a couple," adding "I don’t want to speculate on who — obviously that puts too much pressure on them — but I really think we have people on both sides that are trying to get to a reasonable, nonpartisan answer''. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested the same in a December interview with Fox News, saying "It wouldn't surprise me if we got one or two Democrats. It looks to me over in the House, the Republicans seem to be solid and the Democrats seem to be divided."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/its-possible-some-democrats-may-vote-acquit-trump-chris-murphy

>>7923010

It was over before the dems started..they knew it..all this was, was nothing more than a stall.

Badmouthing the president': Tom Cotton says Trump had good reason to oust Yovanovitch

President Trump was justified in removing former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch from her post, Sen. Tom Cotton said. "He was told … that she was 'running around Kyiv, badmouthing you, and saying that you're going to be impeached,'" Cotton said Sunday on Face the Nation. "The president has the right to remove any ambassador for any reason or no reason whatsoever. An ambassador badmouthing the president is a pretty sound reason to remove an ambassador." Newly released audio and footage of a private April 2018 dinner between Trump and two associates of Rudy Giuliani show the president instructing them to "take her out" and "get rid of her." The dinner took place more than a year before Yovanovitch was fired in May 2019.

Yovanovitch provided testimony before a House committee late last year detailing concerns that she was removed from her post for standing in the way of a shadow diplomacy campaign waged by Giuliani and Lev Parnas in Ukraine. Giuliani and Parnas sought to convince the leaders of Ukraine to announce investigations into corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Democrats have pointed to Yovanovitch as an example of a career that was destroyed by Trump's push to achieve domestic political outcomes while using the power of the presidency to do so. The House impeached Trump on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Cotton and other defenders of Trump, however, said Yovanovitch had to go. "He was not hasty, he was not precipitous," Cotton said of Trump's decision to fire her. The Arkansas senator twice compared the release of the recordings and video to the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. "This reminds me a lot of what happened in [that] case, where the Democrats kept releasing supposed bombshells," Cotton said. "I think all we're missing here is Michael Avenatti to come out and defend someone as well."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/badmouthing-the-president-tom-cotton-says-trump-had-good-reason-to-oust-yovanovitch