black mamba. black mamba. ♪ new revelations from john bolton's upcoming book are raising the stakes for president trump's impeachment. democrats are once again calling on the former national security adviser to testify. plus the president's defense team takes a spotlight in the senate impeachment trial. trump's legal team says democrats have failed to make a case against the president. and this morning the world is in shock following the death of five-time nba champion kobe bryant. investigators are looking into what caused the helicopter he was in to crash in los angeles. good monday morning, everyone,

it is january 27th, i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. i was just saying that it seems that we've been in 2020 for almost an entire year. >> when is it over? >> four weeks into it. we are kicking off week two of president trump's impeachment trial and new revelations from former national security adviser john bolton's upcoming book a shear to be reigniting the call for witnesses at his trial. "the new york times" is reporting that trump told bolton last august that he wanted to continue freezing critical military aid to ukraine until government officials there helped with investigations targeting joe biden, his son hunter and other democrats. the "times" says this is according to an unpublished manuscript. nbc news has not seen a copy of the manuscript or verified the report which cited multiple sources familiar with bolton's account. bolton writes how the ukraine affair unfold td over several months until he departed white

house last september. it describes president trump's private disparagement about ukraine and details about senior officials who tried to sidestep any involvement. >> bolton said secretary of state mike pompeo acknowledged privately there was no bases to claims by president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani that the ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, was actually corrupt. bolton claims he also raised concerns about giuliani with attorney general bill barr following the president's july 25th phone call with the leader of ukraine. bolton writes that acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney was present for at least one phone call where the president and giuliani discussed ambassador yovanovitch, despite telling associates he would always step away when the president spoke to his lawyer. bolton's attorneys are blaming the white house for the disclosure of the book's contents. one of bolton's aides said the ambassador sent a draft to the white house for a review by the national security council. she says bolton has not passed that manuscript to anybody else

for review, period. >> now, president trump is denying those new bolton revelations outlined by "the new york times," he tweeted late last night i never told john bolton that the aid to ukraine was tried to investigations into democrats including the bidens, in fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. if john bolton said this, it was only to sell a book. democratic prosecutors leading the impeachment case against the president put out a statement last night saying in part there can be no doubt now that mr. bolton directly contradicts the heart of the president's defense and therefore must be called as a witness at the impeachment trial of president trump. >> and following three days of arguments by prosecutors in the impeachment trial of the president, the white house defense team on saturday presented senators with its case, spending two of the 24 hours allotted to them so far. the president's team framed the impeachment process as illegitimate while trying to invalidate the prosecution's arguments. >> for all their talk about

election interference, that they're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in american history and we can't allow that to happen. it would violate our constitution. it would violate our history. it would violate our obligations to the future and most importantly it would violate the sacred trust that the american people have placed in you. >> first of all, let me be clear. disagreeing with the president's decision on foreign policy matters or whose advice he is going to take is in no way an impeachable offense. >> when it comes to sending u.s. taxpayer money overseas, the president is focused on burden

sharing and corruption. first, the president rightly had real concerns about whether european and other countries were contributing their fair share to ensuring ukraine's security. second, corruption. since the fall of the soviet union ukraine has suffered from one of the worst environments for corruption around the world. a parade of witnesses testified in the house about the pervasive corruption in ukraine and how it is in america's foreign policy and national security interests to help ukraine combat corruption. >> to say that the president of the united states did not -- was not concerned about burden sharing, that he was not concerned about corruption in ukraine, the facts from their hearing, the facts from their hearing establish exactly the opposite. >> mr. schiff and his colleagues

repeatedly told you that the intelligence community assessment that russia was acting alone, responsible for the election interference, implying that this somehow debunked the idea that there might be, you know, interference from other countries including ukraine. mr. nadler deployed a similar argument saying that president trump thought, quote, ukraine not russia interfered in our last presidential election. and this is basically what we call a straw man argument. let me be clear. the house managers in over a 12-hour period kept pushing this false dichotomy that it was either russia or ukraine, but not both. >> the democrats accused the president of leveraging security assistance to supposedly force president zelensky to announce investigations. but how can that possibly be when the ukrainians were not even aware that the security assistance was paused?

there can't be a threat without the person knowing he's being threatened. there can't be a quid pro quo without the quo. the top ukrainian official said nothing, nothing at all to their u.s. counterparts during all of these meetings about the pause on security assistance but then, boom, as soon as the "politico" article comes out suddenly in that first intense week of september in george kent's words, security assistance was all they wanted to talk about. what must we conclude if we are using our common sense? that they didn't know about the pause until the "politico" article on august 28th. the bottom line is it is not possible for the brief security assistance review to be used as leverage when president zelensky and other top ukrainian officials did not know about it. that's what you need to know. >> joining us now from washington, d.c. author of the "washington post's" early morning newsletter "power up" jackie al mainy. great to have you with us and great to find a fellow early

riser. >> we always appreciate it. >> especially with that "power up." >> know our pain. >> let's start quickly with the "new york times'" report on john bolton's manuscript and what he knew about the president withholding aid to ukraine. what do bolton's words add to what we already know? >> it's really significant this bombshell by "the new york times" that came out last night and it's perhaps really the only last bit of news that i think could potentially sway this impeachment trial as its really come to a standstill, you know, all in the hands of john bolton and what he has written in his upcoming book, but i think what's so important here and really to be an impetus for pushing republicans to vote for witnesses is that in this transcript that the "new york times," this draft of a manuscript of his book obtained by the "times" bolton alleges that the president directly told him to withhold security aid to ukraine, $400 million to them

that they were waiting for, until they announced an investigation into joe biden and hunter biden, into the president's democratic rivals. this upends a huge part of the trump legal team's defense which is that, you know, the president's demands were political and they were contingent on these investigations that the president expected president zelensky to open up. what it also does is it upends another key part, a crux of the legal team's defense, which is the hearsay argument that out of all of these 12 witnesses that have already testified and delivered hours, dozens -- hundreds of hours worth of depositions on the hill, that there's no one to explicitly dealt with the president. well, with this -- you know, with this bombshell scoop does is show that the president directly told john bolton to carry out this pressure scheme that all of these other witnesses have already outlined and corroborated. >> hey, jackie, talk about how

this could feasibly change the defense coming from the president's team over the next two days or so. do we at all believe that they expected this thing to come out, that the white house expected this thing to come out as well considering they knew of the manuscript and were reviewing it inside the white house. >> the timeline raises ethical questions. we know from bolton's lawyer that the draft of the transcript was delivered to the white house to the national security council on december 30th. so it's been in the white house's hands for a while. whether or not it actually made it into the lawyers' hands if they reviewed the contents and read all of bolton's explosive allegations that still remains to be seen and it's something we are also going to see today in the way that they react to it. but it's going to be ethically problematic to them if it turns out that they actually did read these contents and crafted their legal strategy, you know,

knowing that it actually really contradicted a lot of the allegations that john bolton made. but the reason why this actually can shift the argument here is because, you know, as your viewers have heard time and time again, right now there are four to six moderate and vulnerable republicans who are really weighing whether or not to vote for witnesses under mitch mcconnell's rules right now, the resolutions, there is initially going to be a vote after trump's legal team provides the rest of their defense about whether or not to even have a debate to call the witnesses. if there are four republicans who vote with democrats then that can actually happen. then there could be an additional vote on actually whether or not there are going to be witnesses to testify and new documents. i think it's going to be really difficult for republican senators especially in really competitive elections to, you know, face these allegations that john bolton has made and

make the conscientious decision to say, no, we still don't want to hear from bolton despite these allegations. >> considering all that we have heard just in this "new york times" report. >> i was going to say you can disagree with john bolton about a lot of things but one of the accusations the president is saying he's trying to sell a become. he's also saying he's willing to come and testify so it's much more than just simply about the selling of a book. >> before any of this came out. >> jackie, live in d.c. for us, we will talk to you again in just a little bit. still ahead, what we know this morning about the deadly helicopter crash that killed nba legend kobe bryant and how he is now being remembered around the world. in the senate impeachment trial the president's defense team is making their arguments. we will take a look on where voters stand on the issue of impeachment. voters stand on the issue of impeachment. can my side be firm?

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welcome back, everyone. the world is still in shock this morning after nba icon kobe bryant was killed yesterday in a

los angeles area helicopter crash. the 41-year-old former nba superstar was with his 13-year-old daughter gianna when the private chopper went down. espn reports they were believed to have been on their way to a travel basketball game. according to police a call for a downed helicopter and brush fire in calabasas, california, went out just before 10:00 a.m. authorities say seven other people on board including the pilot were also killed in the crash. bryant who lived south of los angeles in orange county often used helicopter to avoid southern california's notorious traffic. as a player he traveled to practices and games by helicopter, a practice he continued after retirement. >> kobe was one of the most influential basketball players of the late 1990s and early 2000s racking up astronomical scoring totals while playing elite defense over a 20-season creek with the los angeles lakers that ended in 2016. five-time nba champion, bryant was named most valuable player

in four of the 15 all-star games he played in, he was the nba's mvp in 2008 and was twice mvp of the nba finals. on saturday night even bryant tweeted his congratulations to lebron james after james surpassed him as number three on the nba's all time scoring list. kobe bryant is survived by his wife vanessa and three daughters. as we were watching this news unfold yesterday it was shocking across the board to say the least to lose someone, a superstar like kobe bryant in the field of basketball. what he had accomplished outside of basketball and getting an oscar last year, just incredible. i thought to myself i'm wondering why it struck home for so many people and i think it's because when you see a superstar like kobe bryant and what they have achieved in your life you feel as if someone like him is completely indestructible and then you realize that something like this can even happen to him and his daughter and all the other families that are waking up this morning and recognizing

that their loved ones are lost. >> yes. >> it is just so incredibly tragic. >> a great person, a very sad day for sports and for really a lot of people around the world. our thoughts go out to him and swlgs to all the other people on that plane as well, the family of the basketball coach from orange county also losing a wife and son. that's also devastating. >> and the relationship that he had with his daughter. so many of the videos circulating and the conversations that he had with his daughter and the love that they both had for basketball and the dreams that he had for her to play in the wnba. just incredible. >> we will talk a lot more about kobe bryant and all the other big stories throughout the rest of the hour, but for now let's just switch gears for a moment and bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins, wills a bill basketball phan. bill, do you have an update for us on the weather. >> there was a lot of reports of fog yesterday morning, too, that's one thing they will be looking at. l.a. fire said they did ground their helicopters yesterday morning because of the low visibility. there's many factors in the days and weeks and months ahead, we will figure out exactly what the cause was. so lts get into your forecast,

get you out the door this morning. it was a pretty quiet weekend, wasn't a lot of big weather concerns. a little light snow moving through areas of western new york and snowshowers that will brush through, temperatures are pretty mild so i don't think the roads will cause any problems at all. we will be looking at wet roadways. if we are going to get any slick conditions it would possibly be up in lake buffalo, syracuse, possibly around the binghamton area. the wind chills this has been an incredibly warm january, this is the last week of january, by the time we're done many areas will see top ten all time warmest, in some cases it may be all time warmest. you have to go up to bismarck and minneapolis to have wind chills in the teens, no problems really in areas of the southern half of the country. theres no cold shots coming in week, either. that's why january is going to end up extremely warm. here is your week ahead forecast, a little light snow today the higher elevations of the rockies, light rain moving through the southeast this morning, snowshowers in the northeast.

all the big weather problems this week are going to be on the pacific northwest. they have one form today, another storm coming in wednesday, that's where our flood risk is. another area of light rain wednesday throughout the southeast and again on friday. you notice from the northeast ohio valley and the great lakes no problems at all and january ends pretty mild throughout much of the country. end of last week we were thinking about a snowstorm for the northeast, looks like that storm is out to sea. >> we are in the clear. >> looks that way. still ahead senator and 2020 candidate bernie sanders makes a quick trip to iowa. we will take a look at new polling showing him leading the pack of democratic candidates in some of the early voting states. n some of the early voting states.

over the weekend as trump's impeachment trial took a break senator bernie sanders took a quick trip to iowa for a campaign rally, touting his electability, taking swipes at his rival's fundraising and arguing what democrats will prior to key feet the president is the strongest voter turnout in u.s. history. >> i do not believe, i simply do not believe that the same old, same old politics is going to generate the excitement to create that turnout. you can't generate excitement when you're busy going to new york raising large sums of money from millionaires and

billionaires. people want change. and i think that what our campaign is about is the ability to speak to working people, many of them having become disillusioned with status quo politics. people work longer hours for low wages are tired of the political establishment and want a government that stands up for them and not just the 1%. we can talk to those people. >> meanwhile, former mayor pete buttigieg made a fundraising appeal on saturday touting his own poll numbers against the president. buttigieg's campaign sent a fundraising email that took aim at sanders saying this, bernie performs the worst against trump among all major candidates. coming up also on "morning joe" you don't want to miss this, former mayor pete buttigieg will be a guest. now just a week before the iowa caucuses the latest polls

show a tight race with senator bernie sanders coming out on top in the new cbs news yougov poll bernie sanders is statistically tied for first with joe biden, pete buttigieg is third with 22%, elizabeth warren fouls in fourth with 15%, senator amy klobuchar is at the five with 7%. sanders is up 6 points from october to take the lead with 25%, buttigieg sits in second with 18th, is statistically tied with biden and warren, klobuchar is in fifth with 8%. >> we have new hampshire polls out showing bernie sanders lead growing and elizabeth warren falling behind. in the nbc news marist poll senator bernie sanders sits atop the field at 22, pete buttigieg and joe biden are next, statistically tied with 17 and 14 respectively followed by senators elizabeth warren and amy klobuchar who are statistically tied at 12 and 10%.

in the poll from cnn and the university of new hampshire sanders leads the rest of the field by a 9-point margin with 25%, biden, pej and warren follow with 16, 15 and 12 percent respectively. still ahead, president trump's defense team started laying out their arguments in the senate impeachment trial. we will show you how lauchls on both sides of the aisle are reacting. plus president trump launches a new attack against congressman adam schiff and schiff is accusing the president of trying to threaten him. that new back and forthcoming up next. him. that new back d anforthcoming up next

welcome back, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. we begin this half hour with more from the senate trial as the white house team made its case against impeachment. republican senators rallied around the defense laid out by president trump's lawyers on saturday. watch this. >> after the house began their case on the first day i said i thought they did a good job of weaving a tapest friday that was compelling, let's see if it stands up to scrutiny. i thought the house managers for the most part were professional and articulate. i would say today the tapestry look different than a few days ago. that's the way trials are conducted. >> within two hours i thought that the white house counsel and their team entirely shredded the case that has been presented by the house managers. so what we heard today was very concise, it was full of truths and facts as presented from the

house managers' own witnesses. >> and senator rick scott of florida tweeted that trump's lawyers, quote, presented facts not partisan rhetoric and innuendo. put simply congressman adam schiff got knee-capped. following the first day of trump's defense senator mitt romney of utah told reporters i think it's very likely i will be in favor of witnesses but i haven't made a decision finally yet and i won't until the testimony is completed. >> in an inter you view with "face the nation" republican senator tom cotton defended jay suck low for repeating the widely dee dunked theory that ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. here is the testy interchange between tom cotton and margaret brennan. >> do you think it was a misstep for one of the president's lawyers, jay sekulow, to stand on the floor of the senate and repeat the conspiracy theory that ukraine meddled in the 2016 election? >> margaret, that's not a conspiracy theory. >> senator john thune one of

your republican completion said he would prefer that the lawyers not do that because the intelligence community concluded that it was russia that meddled. >> sorks margaret, that's a democratic talking point. >> this is what john thune one of the republican leaders said. >> it's a democratic talking point that the president and his lawyers have argued that it was ukraine who interviewed in our elections not russia. you can read the president's brief. they make it very clear that, yes, you can accept that russia interfered in a systematic organized top down fashion in our election. i say that. i've been part of the intelligence committee that's been investigating it for years. you can also say that it's clear some ukrainian officials tried to influence the outcome of the election in 2016. >> but you're being precise in your words there and that was not what the president's lawyers said on the floor. >> i'm saying exactly what the president's brief said. you can also say that countries like china and iran and north korea tried to influence our election as well. both of those things can be true. >> but you do know that the trump appointed election czar at

the director of national intelligence said we do not assess that any other country influenced the united states election in 2016 on the scale of what the russians did. that's an exact quote. >> but that's consistent with my point. i said on a scale russia was top down organized systematic. >> would you caution the president's lawyers to be more -- >> the ukrainian ambassador published an op-ed criticizing donald trump. >> that is not what the president's lawyers said on the floor. >> asked about hunter biden republican senator tom cotton defended the gop's argument that hunter biden should testify at the senate impeachment trial. let's watch this. >> well, i think given the house democrats' presentation there are now real questions about joe biden and hunter biden's conduct. they spent hours trying to explain away what hunter biden did going to work for a corrupt ukrainian oligarch and joe biden intervening to get that oligarch fired just days after his house

was raided by investigators. i think those are serious and legitimate questions. >> if they are irrelevant what are you afraid of? won't that be exposed? >> it's not a question of what i'm afraid of. i'm not afraid of anything. the question is should the trial be used as a vehicle to smear his opponent? is that the purpose of the senate trial? or is it to get to the truth. if it's to get to the truth hunter biden can't tell us anything about the withholding of the military funding. hunter biden can't tell us why the president wouldn't let the president of ukraine into the oval office. hunter biden can't tell us anything about that. so, you know, it's a false choice to say, well, if the house gets to call witnesses doesn't the president? yes, we both get to call witnesses, we both get to call relevant ones. adam schiff maintained that contrary to republican demands hunter biden had nothing to add to the impeachment trial. here is what adam schiff had to say on "meet the press." >> i think they are deathly afraid of what witnesses will

have to say and so their whole strategy has been deprive the public of a fair trial. what was so striking to me really about their case was that they basically acknowledged the scream. they don't really contest the president's scheme. if they are successful in depriving the country of a fair trial there is no exoneration. theres no exoneration. americans will recognize that the country did not get what the founders intended because they put the word try in the constitution for a reason. >> lead impeachment prosecutor congressman adam schiff blasted president trump's lawyers for depriving americans of a fair trial. >> this is a wrathful and vin difficultful president. i don't think there is any doubt about t if you think there is look at the president's tweets about mimi today saying i should pay a proo is. >> do you think that's a threat. >> i think it's intended to. >> president trump concentrated on adam schiff suggesting that he will pay a price for his role

in the impeachment trial. he tweeted the impeachment hoax is a massive election interference the likes of which have never been seen before. shifty is exposed for illegally making up my photo. he went on shifty adam schiff is a corrupt politician. he has not paid the price yet for what he has done for our country. later in the morning schiff responded to what the president had to say. >> this is a wrathful and vind iktful president. look at the president's treats about me saying that i should pay a price. >> do you take that as a threat? >> i think it's intended to be. >> all right. let's bring in jackie alemany now to talk more about this. jackie is standing by for us. thanks, great. let's get into this a little bit, jackie, with regards to some of the back and forth we're hearing from adam schiff and the president. what do you make of it?

>> you know, adam schiff has really done -- has performed above and beyond his colleagues' expectations, but, you know, i think actually the clips that you played prior to adam schiff, tom to then's comments with margaret brennan, casting more and more doubt on ukraine's involvement in the u.s. election and furthering these conspiracy theories that are really basement, that's a lot of what we are going to be seeing today. at this point the house democratic managers don't have much leeway to continue to make their arguments. there is going to be a questioning period after the president's legal team puts forward their defense today, but the most the democrats can really do is get out there in the media and really hope for the best and hope for sort of these external factors like john bolton potentially deciding that he wants to testify and putting out some key details of his conversations with the president

in -- you know, through his unpublished manuscript. at the end of the day i think tom cotton's comments are preamble from what we're going to see from republicans today which is a scorched earth attack on joe and hunter biden and sort of avoiding really a lot of the other facts that we have seen come forth just over the past week. >> jackie, let me get your thoughts on a point that one of the clips we played there, adam schiff talking about why there is no reason to call hunter biden to be a witness and what we can expect part of the lawyer -- the president's lawyers today arguing whether or not they want witnesses or not. are we likely to see them try to make the case why hunter biden should be called to testify? >> that's exactly what we're going to see. we're going to see republicans try to make this corruption case, which again i can't stress this enough is really unfounded and based in conspiracy theories

that rudy giuliani has been peddling to the president which actually have originally come from russian disinformation campaigns that have somehow made it into the u.s., you know, conservative media. but you're going to see the lawyers make that argument. it's what people like senator ted cruz pushed all week, that hupt hunter biden is a witness. there is this question of relevancy. in a court of law, in a criminal trial, hunter biden and joe biden are not relevant to the president being under investigation for the abuse of power and obstruction of congress. any democrat who, you know, would say, okay, fine, let's do a witness, you know, substitution here, a witness reciprocity system here, would be validating that which is why you saw a lot of democrats last week revolt against that idea, you know, with he will take a biden for john bolton because it just validates these baseless

theories. but, you know, i think that with these bolton revelations that have come out it's going to be really difficult for republicans, especially the really vulnerable ones to cast a vote against calling a witness like john bolton. i think they lose a lot of good will with voters if they do say let's call someone like hunter biden and they are just quite frankly under a lot of scrutiny and pressure here. >> i was going to say one of the points really quickly if you watched saturday's presentation, they tried -- the president's lawyers tried to make the president's overarching foreign policy about fighting corruption, they tried to list a few examples -- >> the fact that corruption was not used once -- >> the word corruption was not used once. and i think the rortsds have shown there has been no other example of the president meaningfully calling on other governments to fight corruption especially in ukraine beyond -- >> and the said withheld was used to help fight corruption in ukraine, jackie. >> that's exactly right.

i also think it's really important to note that you have people like george kent testify in front of the house, in front of the american public that these issues were raised about joe biden in a tricky ethical, you know, issues here with hunter biden serving on the board of burisma in 2015. so a lot of these senators who are now on this hunter biden bandwagon driving these rallying cries, why didn't they call for a corruption investigation when they first had the opportunity. >> it was only after joe biden decided to run and become the front runner -- >> when they had control of congress. they could have launched and investigates. >> jackie alemany, thank you so much. always a pleasure. still ahead, a military veteran and u.s. senator comes to the president's defense following outrage over trump's down playing of the injuries suffered by american troops in that iranian ballistic missile attack on a u.s. military base in iraq. plus nba icon kobe bryant killed along with eight others including his 13-year-old daughter in a tragic helicopter stent in california yesterday.

your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment.

a veterans group is calling on trump to apologize for his comments after he downplayed the seriousness of many u.s. troops being treated for traumatic brain injuries. the pentagon announced on friday 34 service u.s. members have been treated for brain injuries suffered in that iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month. here is how president trump described their traumatic brain injuries just last week. >> i heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but i would say -- and i can report it is not very serious. >> speaking yesterday on "face the nation" republican senator tom cotton a military veteran himself defended trump's comments. >> veterans groups are calling for the president to apologize. should he apologize for calling it not that serious. >> he is not dismissing their injuries. >> he said they're headaches and not very serious.

>> i think he's describing their injuries. he is not dismissing their headaches. >> he said headaches, i don't consider them very serious. >> that's like saying that having a there esh wound is not very serious. >> veterans groups and i know you are a veteran, don't you think it's serious and that the president may need to apologize? >> i mean, if it -- if they are -- if all these injuries are not serious, if they are on the less serious side of the scale than the severe traumatic side of the scale the president is just describing what happened here. he was not dismissing them. >> so you consider tbi a serious injury. >> yes, but, again, there is a big scale of that that can be return to duty in one day or have severe traumatic lasting injury and i think he's describing thankfully what end of the scale that lies on. so the world is still in shock this morning after nba icon kobe bryant was killed yesterday in a los angeles area helicopter crash. nbc news's national correspondent miguel almaguer has the details.

>> reporter: the fiery wreckage of the helicopter carrying kobe bryant and his daughter gianna. >> we do have one copter down. >> reporter: was still smoldering when first responders arrived. >> all units responded to the brush fire. 125 reporting one acre, one copter down. >> reporter: in the canyons of calabasas officials confirmed the 41-year-old basketball superstar was with his 13-year-old girl and seven other people including the pilot when the chopper went down. headed to a travel basketball game flight radar shows the sikorsky s-76 seen here with clooint had been flying since 9:00 a.m. it appears to have crossed over downtown los angeles, glen dale and then calabasas making a sunday u-turn at 2,400 feet before rapidly descending into the hills. >> i heard some noise, i mean, a helicopter noise was very low flying. >> reporter: witnesses said the conditions were foggy when the crash was followed by an

explosion. the retired laker, five-time champion and oscar winner had long commuted via his own private helicopter dubbed kobe 1 to beat l.a. traffic. >> you still fly the helicopter. >> yeah. >> bryant recently spoke of air commuting on jimmy kimmel. >> did you learn how to fly it. >> i don't trust myself behind the wheel of a car. >> reporter: hours before the fatal crash bryant paid trib ul to lebron james who surpassed him as the third highest scorer in nba history. tributes pouring in from politicians and fans. >> just disbelief. i mean, it's kobe. he is invincible. >> reporter: an nba icon and a family man, bryant shared his love for basketball with his daughter gianna, his life as legendary as tragic. kobe bryant survived by his wife vanessa and three daughters. >> still so much in disbelief. >> i was going to say one of the things about kobe bryant a lot of people don't know is that he

was a huge soccer fan, we are talking about his global fan. >> spoke italian fluently. >> neymar paid tribute to him after he scored a goal overseas. you can see the impact going well beyond the borders of america and affecting the entire global community. our thoughts and prayers with vanessa. let's switch gears and bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> it's a good point about how globally basketball is as compared to major league baseball. soccer is probably the only comparison. >> i saw an interview that they aired yesterday, i can't remember who did it, but he was talking about messi and how he felt like messi was one of the best athletes in the world ever all time. he was such a world -- >> he definitely knew his soccer. a barcelona fan. >> an outpouring throughout the globe. let's get into your forecast, get you into your monday.

the big weather story of the week, the worst weather pretty much all week long is going to be in the pacific northwest, you have been wet lately and you are about to get soaked. it's not often you can look all the way well out into the pacific ocean, you just see the stream of white. this is all the crowds. we don't have radar out here, you have to wait until it gets closer to the coast, but this is all going to stream straight into the northwest over the next couple days. because of that we could see maybe 4, 5, 6 inches of rain in a few areas. most likely spots are going to be the higher terrain as we go into the area of the olympics and all the way down through coastal areas of oregon, the cascades will get it, too. it's pretty warm so the snow levels will be pretty high. i'm sure some of the peaks will be getting that snow also. temperatures this morning as we were mentioning earlier not a lot of cold air to be found, hasn't been a lot lately. temperatures in the 20s in bismarck, minneapolis, des moines, not bad in chicago starting out at 28 degrees, d.c. is at 37, even boston is at 39. we are going to be mild most of this week, not really going to

see any cold shots. let's get into your forecast as far as the temperatures go, the arm air areas of texas and the northeast. d.c. keeping -- i mean, this january we see one 50 degree day after another. 50 degrees this afternoon. new york city will be 46, 5 to 10 degrees warmer than we should be this time of year. look at montana tomorrow, billings, montana, at 48 degrees, 10 degrees warmer than you should be. there is no cold air coming this week. we are going to end january very mild, areas like richmond will be in the 40s, new york city low 40s to upper 30s, even chicago will be in the mid 30s. this will go down as one of our country's warmest jans ever recorded. >> unbelievable. >> which, you know, we keep saying over and over. >> i don't want it to be because of climate change but i appreciate that it's warmer and i don't like that. that's why i'm conflicted. >> it seems as if it may be. >> it seems like it could be, yes. >> truth hurts.

>> thank you, bill. still ahead, a new audio recording released by indicted giuliani associate lev parnas appears to implicate the president in an effort to oust marie yovanovitch. we will play you some of that sound next. rie yovanovitch. we will play you some of that sound next

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welcome back. in a new recording obtained by nbc news president trump appears to call for the ousting of u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. and asks donors for an

assessment of how long ukraine would survive against russia. according to lev parnas' lawyer the recording is from an april 2018 dinner attended by rudy giuliani's now indicted associates parnas and igor fruman. >> the biggest problem there i think where we need to start is we've got to get rid of the ambassador. she's still left over from the clinton administration. >> where the ambassador of ukraine? >> yeah, she's basically walking around telling everybody, wait, he is a he going to get impeached. just wait. >> she will be gone tomorrow. >> i don't remember. >> now that we have a secretary of state -- >> get rid of her. get her out tomorrow. i don't care. get her out tomorrow. take her out. okay? >> excellent. >> do it. >> how long will they last in a fight with russia? >> not very. >> i don't think very long.

without us, not very long. >> without us. >> all right. so the president who has publicly asserted he does not know parnas and fruman appears to speak at length about ukraine and russia with them during the dinner and new indication as early as march of 2018 the president was seeking insight into how ukraine would fair without u.s. support. nbc news has not confirmed the voices on the tape are the president. parnas and fruman, but trump can be seen in early parts of the video. neither he nor the white house have disputed that the recording is authentic. >> it makes you wonder exactly how the president of the united states could have somebody in his overt for that long of a time totally being recorded unknown to anyone around them. it's troubling to know. >> it is troubling to know. >> what may come out after four years. >> and what else may be out there. republican senator tom cotton of arkansas dismissed the apparent recordings of trump discussing the ousting of former ambassador marie yovanovitch,

comparing the release of evidence to the 2018 hears of supreme court justice brett kavanaugh. >> when the president says get rid of. take her out, the u.s. ambassador to ukraine. given that the president previously said he didn't even know these men, doesn't it trouble you that we now have recordings of him discussing this issue in ukraine with them? >> no, margaret and this reminds me of what happened in the brett kavanaugh case when they kept releasing supposed bombshells. >> you don't think this recording is damaging in any way? >> let's look at the context this have report. that video was more than a year before he asked marie yovanovitch to be removed. and he was told in that voo we just heard that she's running around kiev badmouthing you and saying you're going to be impeached. the president has the right to remove any ambassador or any reason or no reason whatsoever. >> he does. >> an ambassador badmouthing a president is a pretty sound reason to remove an ambassador. i would point out that that

video occurred more than a year after she was removed. it goes to show the president he was not hasty, he was not precipitous, he didn't just act on the word of these people. >> okay. coming up next, the president's defense team begins to lay out its case against impeachment while revelations from former national security adviser john bolton's upcoming book reignites calls for witnesses in the senate impeachment trial. the details surrounding the shocking death of former nba superstar kobe bryant. all that and much more when we're back in a moment. that and we're back in a moment