White House Counsel Pat Cipollone urged senators Tuesday to "trust the American people" and acquit President Trump of impeachment offenses as the president's lawyers wrapped up their trial arguments.
"You know what the right answer is in your heart," Mr. Cipollone told senators. "The election is only months away. Why ...
Donald Trump's lawyers and Senate enablers are doing their damnedest to pretend that former national security adviser John Bolton is just some guy making stuff up in "An unpublished manuscript, that some reporters, maybe, have some idea what it said. If you want to call that evidence." They might want to rethink that considering new polling from Navigator research showing that a whopping 82% of registered voters think Bolton should testify at the impeachment hearing.
What's more, and this is something, that question was included in a poll in the field last week, before the report from Bolton's leaked manuscript which says flat-out that Trump withheld aid to Ukraine for his own political gain. From the toplines of the poll, respondents were asked "If John Bolton has firsthand knowledge of Donald Trump's actions relating to Ukraine and investigating Joe Biden, how important is it for John Bolton to testify in the Senate impeachment trial?" A total of 82% say yes—56% say it's very important and 26% say it's somewhat important to hear from him. That includes 70% of Republicans, with 33% saying it's very important and 37% somewhat important.
x[NEW POLL] 82% of Americans think that Ambassador John Bolton must testify in the Senate #ImpeachmentTrials.Senate Republicans: #BoltonMustTestify pic.twitter.com/1gtu6q5cKi
— Law Works (@LawWorksAction) January 28, 2020
By PopZette Staff | January 28, 2020
Chilling video footage has emerged showing Kobe Bryant’s helicopter circling the skies of Glendale, California “aggressively” minutes before it crashed, killing the 41 year-old NBA legend and eight others.
The video was shared to Twitter by a user with the handle @theironlydreams, who spotted the helicopter flying above their house and immediately started filming.
“I try and video /photograph all the weird stuff happening above my house in Glendale, CA,” the user wrote. “Unfortunately this morning I didn’t realize I was filming the helicopter Kobe Bryant, his daughter and others were in 31 minutes before they crashed.”
I try and video /photograph all the weird stuff happening above my house in Glendale,CA. Unfortunately this morning I didn’t realize I was filming the helicopter Kobe Bryant, his daughter and others were in 31 minutes before they crashed . RIP pic.twitter.com/8zdiplvEbv
— THEIR ONLY DREAMS (@theironlydreams) January 27, 2020
The Twitter user later added that the “pilot was performing a very aggressive circling maneuver, that’s why I went outside to Film because it was so loud. I observed 1 or 2 circles before filming and he was even lower and closer to my house, engine maxed.”
I appreciate the compliment, unfortunately this flight was tragic. This pilot was performing a very aggressive circling maneuver,that’s why I went outside to Film because it was so loud.I observed 1 or 2 circles before filming & he was even lower & closer to my house,engine maxed
— THEIR ONLY DREAMS (@theironlydreams) January 27, 2020
This comes after veteran pilot Robert Ditchey told USA Today that the helicopter crash, which also killed Bryant’s 13 year-old daughter Gianna, “was totally avoidable.”
“And on the part of some people I can go as far as to say irresponsible,” Ditchey said. “Here’s one of the most important people in the world who comes to a tragic end like this and you say, ‘Why? What the hell happened?'”
The weather was so foggy in Southern California on the morning of the crash that the Los Angeles Police Department had grounded all of their helicopters due to safety concerns, according to Daily Mail. Despite this, Bryant’s helicopter took off from Santa Ana in Orange County just after 9am to take him to a basketball game that his daughter was set to play in.
Ditchey wondered why anyone would get on a helicopter in these kind of “very scary conditions.”
“The weather is not good enough for the police to fly,” Ditchey said. “Why should Kobe do it?”
The experienced pilot went on to explain that the helicopter likely crashed because of the decreased visibility that stemmed from the fog in Glendale.
RELATED: My Take: Kobe Bryant Death
“He’s down only 100 feet or so above the ground,” he continued. “In that area of the San Fernando Valley you have mountains on either side of you … and the clouds have obscured them, and you don’t have that much room to maneuver.”
Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that this tragedy could have been prevented had more precautions been taken. We can only hope that this devastating tragedy causes people to think twice before boarding helicopters in questionable weather conditions going forward.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
Rocket Strikes U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
More GOP Senators Could Defect in Impeachment Trial
Bolton Manuscript Leaked, Romney and Collins May Vote Against the President
The post Chilling Footage Emerges of Kobe Bryant’s Helicopter Flying Erratically Before Crash appeared first on The Political Insider.
The final day of opening arguments from Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team (which will be closing arguments, too, if they have their way) is expected to be relatively brief. Guess they’ll have to increase their lies-per-minute to make quota.
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:56:04 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
That’s all folks. Cipollone’s closing speech was … there was no closing speech.
They’ll begin the question session on Wednesday for eight hours, alternating questions between Republicans and Democrats. Questions will be written and submitted to Roberts to be read.
Roberts indicates that he’s going to enforce a five minute rule on the response to each question.
That will wrap up the question period on Thursday. Unclear if the vote for possible witnesses would be held on that same evening.
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:46:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
xTuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:49:10 PM +00:00 · Mark SumnerJay Sekulow is the Lionel Hutz of the impeachment trial. https://t.co/YPpD4dKYoX pic.twitter.com/aANnAolQYF
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) January 28, 2020
Pat Cipollone up for the final Trump note. Starts off by saying that he believes they’ve “already made their case” and ends by playing old clips of Nadler and Lofgren during the Clinton impeachment.
Arguments that were clearly so convincing that Republicans didn’t take the articles out of the House and send them to the Senate. Except … umm.
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:50:39 PM +00:00 · HunterTrump defenders now going through past Democratic opposition to the Clinton impeachment, which was premised on lying about a sex act, to claim hypocrisy on Democrats now concerned about covering up the extortion of election help from a foreign power by illegally using the withholding of military aid as bargaining chip. To be fair Republican senators do seem to consider those two things equal.
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:51:17 PM +00:00 · Mark SumnerThat seems to be all Cipollone is going to do. Show the old clips and repeat the claim that impeachment means “tearing up every ballot across this country.”
As he has at several points, Cipollone is arguing that impeachment itself is unconstitutional.
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:52:02 PM +00:00 · Mark SumnerHonestly, that seems to be all he has. Meaning that the whole Republican closing argument is “we’ve given you a lot of evidence, so we don’t need to tell you about the evidence.”
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:52:44 PM +00:00 · HunterThis talking point of ‘overturning the last election’ is false. The election would not be overturned. Pence would be placed in charge (shudder) due to Trump’s removal. And yet they still bleat on about this. If Trump can’t abide by the laws of the country, it is he who has betrayed his voters, not the Senate.
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:53:14 PM +00:00 · Mark SumnerCipollone keeps starting lines with “finally.” And then continuing. But he doesn’t really seem to have anything to say here.
And hey, after Sekulow, what is there to say?
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:54:04 PM +00:00 · HunterAnd Cipollone says the defense is done. McConnell now laying out how questioning both sides will proceed tomorrow.
Tuesday, Jan 28, 2020 · 7:55:49 PM +00:00 · HunterRoberts suggests that answers during the question and answer period be limited to 5 minutes or less. For 16 hours.