Rep. Darrell Issa is defending President Trump using the Justice Department to investigate his political foes … and he says Trump’s no worse than Joe Biden.

The Congressman from California joined us on “TMZ Live” Thursday and we asked him about Trump directing the DOJ to look into a couple officials from his first term who ultimately became Trump critics.

Rep. Issa says Trump weaponizing the DOJ to go after political enemies isn’t all that different from what Biden did with the DOJ in investigating Trump when Biden was in the White House.

A helicopter plummeted from the skies above New York City on Thursday, crashing into the Hudson River — and the terrifying incident was caught on video.

Multiple people have been killed, according to various local reports. Several shocked eyewitnesses recorded the yellow chopper on video — a portion of it can be seen at the surface …. while the rest appears to be submerged.

According to police, the helicopter came down near Pier 25, between West Street and Canal Street shortly after 3 PM local time.

Emergency boats responded to the crash and reportedly pulled 2 people from the craft. Life-saving efforts were performed on at least one victim. It’s unclear how many people were in the craft, but it’s believed at least 5 people were on board … 2 adults (a man and a woman) … and 3 kids.

The cause of the crash has not been confirmed.

Christina Haack continued her PDA-filled vacation with her new man, Christopher Larocca … but this time the lovebirds toned it down from the other day when they were snapped in a boob-grabbing series of photos.

The HGTV star has been hanging out with Larocca — the Network Connex CEO — in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for the past several days… spending every waking moment together, and they just can’t keep their hands off each other.

As you know, Christina split with her husband, Joshua Hall, last summer and filed for divorce. Now she’s clearly moved on with Christopher.

Christina is also seen with her arm resting on Christopher’s back as they walk somewhere. Check out the full set of photos to get a good look at their budding relationship, which, after this week, seems to be moving in overdrive.

Yesterday, TMZ ran a slew of photos of the couple and they steamed up the camera lens. Christopher was photographed grabbing a couple of handfuls of Christina’s breasts as she leaned back against him at an outdoor cocktail bar in Cabo. At another point, Christina was pictured turning around and kissing Christopher.