Good evening, rachel. So 98 women now have seats in the house of representatives. A new record high. Could be 99 depending on how some of the rest of these counts shakeout. It really was an extraordinary night for women candidates. Yeah, and people said this was going to be the year of the woman, year of the woman and lots of cynics and nay sayers were like you always say that whenever you want democrats to win. First of all, democrats did win. But second of all youve got 1en women in the house of representatives for the First Time Ever and its pretty undeniable. It they went down against female democrats. And tonight, rachel, when we see the afternoon breaking news of the president firing the attorney general, im just imagining what our world would be tonight if the democrats had not won the house of representatives, a huge win that changes the nature of trumpism in washington. Yeah, and i dont think that theres a disconnect between these two stories. The democrats want control of congress, and the president immediately took steps to do everything he could to pull out all the steps to try to end the special counsels investigation into him and his campaign before the democrats are sworn in for this new congress, which would put them in a position to protect that investigation. This is desperate move out of fear by this president. Its a radical move the way hes done it, and we are in a very uncertain moment here in terms of how this proceeds. But of course and theres no way of knowing if this president has been advised of this, that the new Democratic House of representatives will be able to obtain the fruits of that investigation no matter what happens to it between now and the time they take office. There is nothing donald trump can do to stop where that investigation will eventually go. They cant do anything to make whats already happened in the investigation go away, but they can certainly take steps to try and stop it from moving any further forward. I mean, it remains to be seen. The thing im most interested in right now is to what means well have transparency . The House Judiciary Committee can simply invite Robert Mueller up to testify at any point and tell exactly, exactly what the acting attorney general is doing every single day. Especially anything involving interference. Thats right. And actually thats a record you cant make go away either. You cant erase the past. Thank you, rachel. Thanks, lawrence. Two years. For two long years america waited. Since election day on november 8, 2016, most americans, most voters have been waiting for the chance to do something about what happened to this country. On election day and Election Night 2016, when the candidate who came in second in the vote was awarded the presidency through the outdated and antidemocratic institution of the Electoral College. American voters did not want donald trump to be president but the Electoral College gave it to him. For two years americans have disapproved of the Trump Presidency every day of that presidency, every single day for two years. And yesterday American Voters rose up in resistance to the Trump Presidency and handcuffed donald trump. The day after donald trump was inaugurated the resistance to donald trump took to the streets not just in washington but around this country and around the world in the biggest worldwide organized protest in history, and last night that resistance took over the house of representatives. And today trump is clinging to the wreckage of the trump government and panicking. The trump government has included the white house and both houses of congress and now the trump government is broken, very broken because the democrats have the house of representatives. And if Donald Trumps newly installed political hack of an acting attorney general takes action against special prosecutor Robert Mueller, the Democratic House of representatives will bring Robert Mueller to testify publicly about exactly how the acting attorney general has interfered with his investigation. And the Democratic House of representatives will move to impeach the president of the United States for obstruction of justice. They will do it. They will have to do it. They will have no choice. The new members of the house of representatives will demand it, and they will get it. Impeachment is real now. And so the president s panicked firing of his attorney general today has moved donald trump one step closer to impeachment and the new trump acting attorney general Matthew Whittaker will also be investigated by the Democratic House of representatives for obstruction of justice if he interferes with the Mueller Investigation in any way. And so Matthew Whittaker has to ask himself tonight, if he wants to be the subject of a criminal investigation run by a Democratic Justice Department two years from now because all of the indicators in last nights election indicate that the democrats will win back the senate two years from now and will win back the white house two years from now, and so there will be a democratic attorney general two years from now. Republicans held onto the senate last night because 26 democratic incumbent senators, most of the democrats in the senate were running for reelection while only nine republican seats were up for reelection. And the next in the next election that will be reversed. Republicans will have the defend 21 seats while democrats will be defending only 12. And the lesson that every republican senator learned last night is not one of them is safe, not one. One of the big stars of this last campaign showed republican senators that every one of them has something to worry about, something to fear. Beto orourke came within 3 points of knocking out a republican senator in texas where the democrats have not won a Senate Election since 1988. They havent come close since 1988. There will be another senate race in texas two years from now when john cornyn seeks reelection. How do you think john cornyn is feeling tonight . He no longer thinks his reelection is going to be easy. Hes taking nothing for granted. Democrats would have been delirious if beto orourke won last night. But even if beto orourke won the republicans would still control the senate with at least 51 republican senators. And so beto orourkes campaign was exciting and it redefined what is possible for democrats in so many ways, in every state in this country. And it certainly created momentum in texas that helped elect two new democratic members in texas, and on that ticket beto orourke creating all that excitement in texas. For democrats wondering what happens with those political rock stars like beto orourke after he loses a senate race, they can think of what happened to george h. W. Bush who lost a senate race in texas. And the next Political Office that he decided to run for was president of the United States. And in that campaign he won the Vice President ial slot on Ronald Reagans ticket. And after that he won the presidency. And so for democrats who were rooting for beto orourke and want to see more from beto orourke, the only thing they need tonight is patience. The crisis in american government, the trump crisis is a washington crisis. There is nothing democratic governors can do to stop donald trump. And so for the governing emergency that america has face for the last two years, but really mattered last night is what happened in the democratic takeover in the house of representatives. It is a huge victory for the democrats and for democracy. In a country where democracy does not always win, as we saw in the last president ial election. Last night 51 million votes were counted for the democrats running for the house of representatives. 47 million votes were counted for the republicans. 4 million more votes were counted for the democrats, and this time the party that got the most votes won. This time democracy won, and democracy had to fight against Jerry Mandered congressional districts rigged by republicans to defy democracy. Democracy had to fight against Voter Suppression where republican controlled states tried to make voting as difficult as possible because they know democracy is their enemy. Democracy won. We couldnt say that two years ago, and thats why america had a sickening feeling on Election Night two years ago. Most voters had a sickening feeling because in a country that prides itself on its democracy wree watched democracy defeated in an election two years ago. The resistance won last night, and donald trump feels that resistance today. He felt it in the White House Press conference where he actually sent a white house staffer to try to wrestle a microphone away from a reporter, something we have never seen before in the history of White House Press conferences. This was a press conference out of control. The president held a press Conference Today in which he tried to appear as if he was ready to work with a Democratic House of representatives, as if he is not terrified of a Democratic House of representatives including a Democratic House of representatives Legal Authority to obtain his tax returns and make them public. But because donald trump is the most incoherent speaker in the history of american politics he rambled as he lied, he angrily attacked reporters, he displayed his delusions for the world to see, and he said things that even his most fervent supporters do not believe, like i am a great moral leader. And as usual in his desperation to appear in control of the new situation in washington, donald trump made absolutely no sense. Im not sure that i should be happy or sad. Mea love gave me no love. For that, i dont blame her. Two years is going to go up and we wont have done a thing. It really could be a beautiful bipartisantype of situation. If they do that, then just all of it is a warlike posture. Eren water has to be perfect. So environmental is very important to me. For the most part im very happy with this cabinet. I could fire everybody right now. Theyre extremely complex, people wouldnt understand them. The election is over. Now everybody is in love. Theyre the ones that cause the division. They cause tremendous division. They will be blamed. Lets impeach him. Theyll impeach mike pence. And can i be honest with you . Joining us now john joining us now john heilemann, Wendy Sherman is joining us, msnbc affairs contributor and ezra klein. First to you on the returns last night, this is a trump nightmare. It has now happened to him. The democrats have control of the house of representatives. His life changes in ways that he still, i think, cannot yet imagine. Yeah, thats right, lawrence. And you watched last night unfold. Election night are always emotional especially for democrats who attach themselves for understandable reasons to the fortunes of charismatic candidates trying to do new things and makelace. People like stacey abrams, like andrew gillum, like beto orourke and they saw them fall. You could sense how people were emotional invested, unhappy about that and they were fearful they were seeing in 2018 a rerun of 2016. And then those house seats started to fall starting around really in a rush around the time 10 00, around the late 9 00 hour, around 10 00 and suddenly you realized what was happening, which was that in the end as crushing for some people some of those high profile losses were that the history books will write only about one thing last night. It will not write about those thirtytwo candidates, not about the fact Donald Trumps Republican Party gained a couple of seats in the senate at a time when the senate map favored republican tuesday a degree not seen in 100 years. It will write about the fact that unitary government in washington is now over and for the first time in trumps political life one branch of government or half of one branch of government is controlled by the opposition party. And that will be the thing that should be the headline out of last night, what the history books write about, and the consequences for Donald Trumps political agenda and certainly his own and entire cabinets need to lawyer up. A record amount of women elected. Before you comment on that, lets listen to some of those women who won last night. When we launched this campaign conventional wisdom dictated that this race was unwinnable. We voted and we won, and we did all of this together. Today is a milestone, but it is really a beginning. It will hear my voice, it will hear your voice. It will hear all of our voices. Were taking our voice to washington. Here in minnesota we dont only welcome immigrants, we send them to washington. Wendy sherman, crow marched Wendy Sherman, crow marched in that womens march the day after the Trump Inauguration where the resistance physically formed and joined together in the streets for the first time. The resistance won the house of representatives last night. It was really extraordinary, lawrence. And i agree with john, this is what history is going to write about. And i was talking to former senator barbara mccullsky who i had the honor of running her campaign for the u. S. Senate. 32 years ago she became the first democratic senator ever elected in her own right. And she joined the single other u. S. Senator nancy castbound in the senate. People said at the time the toga didnt come in a size 4 petite. And she said im a 25year overnight success, and this is what senators are going to look like. And we saw that in large numbers last night with enormous diversity to boot. Veterans, moms, business women, folks who have been in Elective Office before, folks who had not been before. The gender gap in the Democratic Party is quite large. I think its a testament as we face the 100th women anniversary of suffrage i think its going to bring real energy to this congress thats going to be seated in january. As we know the Economic Statistics are very, very good at this point. They mirror the Economic Statistics of the last 20 months or so of the obama administration. Really, really strong Economic Statistics. So there are some formulations today indicating that no president has ever lost this badly in the house. When the Economic Statistics are this strong. This is what makes this result so remarkable. So were at 3. 7 unemployment, were at full employment. If you look at polling about the economy, what people think about the economy, people say the economy is in great shape. Its the best time in decades to get a job. And when you have that is the greatest gift a Political Party can have, that is when you win seats. Donald trump despite having one of the best economies in decades, he has not cracked 50 not once. And then in his first midterm election, he had a 7 to 8 percentage point house popular vote against his own party. Thats a bigger popular vote margin in 20150 when unemployment was 9. 8 . So republicans managed to make people angrier than 3. 7 unemployment than democrats did when unemployment was 9. 8 . I think one reason it doesnt always get appreciated that way is Donald Trumps initial rise was so unexpected the media is often very loathe to say hes actually not that good at politics. He actually underperforms where we think any president would be given these economic conditions. This is terrible purchase. Imagine what these results would have looked like if unemployment was 5. 7 or 6. 7 . And two years from now its very possible donald trump will not be running as such a good economy as he has now, and then what . John heilemann, the news media always uses the word gridlock as if its a negative. There is such a thing as good gridlock, and thats when the gridlock is stopping bad government. And we can only wish those interested in good government, we can only wish there could have been gridlock for the last two years in the congress. The democrats are now positioned to stop anything and everything that donald trump wants to do legislatively. Theres a reason why the founders split the legislative body into two, the upper house and the lower house, and part of the design there was so that those houses could be controlled by opposing parties. There were other reasons for the different designs of the house of representatives than the way the senate is designed, but there was a case it was forethought about the notion you would want to a context in which republican could control, democrats could control another, and it would keep either side from enacting strong policies and cause both sides to meet somewhere in the middle and compromise. That is where were headed towards now, and i think thats a big part of the reason why they now control the house because people did in fact want the gridlock were describing. The president steps out on the stage today, demonstrates to the country his wild incoherence, aggressiveness with reporters to a level weve never seen, literally trying to get the microphones grabbed away from the reporters. Utter chaos in a White House Press briefing room. And the notion that the house the democrats and the house of representatives will sit there in opposition to everything that that president wants to do could be very appealing to a vast majority of voters at this point. I agree with that. And if you look at the comparison between i think the panic that the president was feeling in that room and the calm of nancy pelosi who is likely most definitely going to be the speaker of the house again, a woman who really understands how to hold that caucus together. A lot of people dont think that congresswoman pelosi is the greatest television communicator in the world, but let me tell you something, she can communicate with her caucus, she can get things done. But thats something about a lot of the women coming into the congress. Theyre about getting the job done. Were often called to do the cleanup. I think its time for us to do the cleanup again. And ezra klein, the house ways and Means Committee as well as the finance committee controlled by republicans, they both have the right to get any tax return they want, including mine or president trumps. And so richie neil whos the new chairman of the house and Ways Committee will be able to request that. That request actually goes to the treasury secretary, and treasury secretary doesnt really have any discretion, but we are likely to see some kind of fight between the ways and Means Committee chair and the treasury secretary over the president s tax return and the notion that that same president will then be trying to cooperate in some way with the house of representatives on legislation is just inconceivable. I think this was something that was really interesting in the press Conference Today. Donald trump came out and he said, if you investigate me, i wont work with you on legislation. If you dont investigate me, i will work with you on legislation. He put those things as opposition, which is often not how theyre done. There are a couple of interesting ideas embedded in that. One is whether democrats want to work with him on legislation, whether thats good for them, which i think is pretty open question. But the other is that democrats are going to have this pretty difficult choice. And it goes to Speaker Pelosi whos an incredibly disciplined leer and tactician. Do they want to run this where theyre creating normalcy and trapping donald trump in policy . Do they want to basically run a strategy they would have run against any, try to get him trapped or in investigations . That i think is the going to be the defining tactical choice for them in the next couple of years. Thank you very much for starting us off on this important night. Appreciate it. And when we come back congressman eric swalwell, an important member of what will be the new majority of the house of representatives will join us with his reaction to the democratic what the Democratic House of representatives will do to protect special prosecutors investigation in the United States. And Jill Winebanks will join us with her view. Imagine where we would be tonight if the democrats had not imagine where we would be tonight if the democrats had not won the house of representatives. We would be living in a hugely different world. President trump would have fired his attorney general today, as he did, but he would have nothing to fear from a house of representatives controlled by republicans if his new acting attorney general fires Robert Mueller or eliminates the special prosecutors budget or tries to interfere with the special prosecutor in any way. A Republican House of representatives would cheer all of that. Tonight the acting attorney general Matthew Whittaker has to worry about a house of representatives investigating him personally as a president of the United States for obstruction of justice if Matthew Whittaker interferes with the Mueller Investigation. Matthew whittaker should have a very short run as acting attorney general because he will be out of a job as soon as the Senate Confirms a new attorney general. The senate will presumably do that early next year after mitt romney has been sworn in as utahs new junior senator. Today mitt romney tweeted i want to thank Jeff Sessions for his service to our country as attorney general. Under acting attorney general Matthew Whittaker it is imperative that the important work of the Justice Department continues and that the Mueller Investigation proceeds to its conclusion unimpeded. As acting attorney general Matthew Whittaker will be subject to the recusal guidelines that gave Jeff Sessions no choice but to recuse himself from supervising the investigation of the Trump Campaign and of the president. If Matthew Whittaker follows the recusal guidelines and chooses to recuse himself, then nothing would have changed in the Mueller Investigation. Matthew whittaker is 49 years old. He will have a long professional career after the Trump Presidency is over. He has to ask himself tonight, how much is he willing to risk that career by obstructing justice for donald trump . Is he willing to risk getting disbarred as a lawyer . Is he willing to risk becoming the third attorney general of the United States convicted of a crime, the previous two were both nixon attorneys general whose lives were ruined by their work as attorneys general for a criminal president of the United States. If Matthew Whittaker obstructs justice for donald trump he will not get away with it, and donald trump will not get away with it because the democrats won the house of representatives. Joining us now are matt miller where an msnbc contributor, and ari melber and host of the beat, weeknights 6 00 p. M. On msnbc. Ari, i want to start with the legitimacy of this transition here. The new acting attorney general being appointed under the federal vacancies reform act, which only applies if an attorney general, for example, resigns or dies in office or Something Like that. If complication here is that Jeff Sessions was fired. He wrote a letter today saying that he was resigning at the request of the president. So as you read that letter, ari, is that a Resignation Letter that complies with the necessities of the federal vacancies act or was he fired . Is it not legal to put in this acting attorney general this way . Its a great question, lawrence. In short he was very clearly fired in every sense of the word. Legally the letter at least gives the administration a framework and cover to assert that the attorney general himself states that he resigned, and thus they will say thats what occurred. Matthew miller, this acting attorney general wrote a piece where he said it would cross a line, it would be improper for the special prosecutor to investigate the Family Businesses of donald trump. That is, of course, not true because the authorization of this special prosecutor very specifically says its to investigate possible foreign interference in the Trump Campaign, the president ial campaign. But also it adds Rod Rosenstein wrote this authorization any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. That authorization reads as a full authorization for anything, anything that Robert Mueller finds after originally gone in with the original mandate to investigate the election. Yeah, youre absolutely right, lawrence. And thats just one of the troubling comments that Matthew Whittaker has made about the Mueller Investigation. I think the most notable comment in my opinion hes made is actually saying publicly that the trump tower meeting, which is at the heart of the investigation, is a meeting anyone would have taken. I dont know how he can fairly oversee this investigation and give anyone confidence about the integrity of the investigation when he has publicly prejudged the legality of something we know mueller is investigating. I think the real question Going Forward is whether hes going to follow department of justice rules, whether hes going to follow the advice of the career ethics officials and recuse himself . I think the totality of the comments raise a question in the publics mind and also he was a chair to campaign to sam clovis who was a witness before the grand jury whos been interviewed in this case. Sam clovis said hes a good friend of Matthew Whittakers. And he oversaw papadopoulos at the Trump Campaign. If he refuses to follow that recommendation to recuse himself, i think its a sign the fix was in from the beginning. Trump has told people apparently he wont recuse himself. I think that will be a sign trump sent him in there to shutdown this investigation in one way or another. Presumably whittaker has told the president under no circumstances will he recuse himself because the president has said he would never put anyone in that job thats going to recuse himself. But that leaves whittaker another choice. Before he presumably will refuse to recuse himself even if advised to do so by the professionals, he then has the choice of do i interfere with the Mueller Investigation or to what extent do i interfere with the Mueller Investigation . And thats where he starts to enter criminal possible liability of obstruction of justice especially after refusing any counsel of recusal. There were some who ended up serving jail time because they used and abused their power of a doj to protect a president. Rick ross has talked about walking in a courtroom sipping on a beverage, i know a judge that got a lot of leverage, thats a gangster attitude that says youre above the law because you have people that will corrupt the law. And so it is very real tonight that we have public evidence that donald trump and mr. Whittaker share one priority, which is overseeing the Justice Department to kneecap the Mueller Probe and not recuse. Donald trumps one public stated beef with sessions was that he recused under the guidance that you just cited that hes supposed to under those doj rules. And mr. Whittaker has said on television he thinks there are ways to kneecap the Mueller Probe like defunding it or putting pressure on it. So thats all out in the open, and the question very much on the minds of the Incoming Democratic majority, and you put their finger on the oversight, is if you have a gangster mentality in the white house trying to subvert the doj. We saw the gangster mentality of literally the nixon gang in the Justice Department and the nixons attorney general. And Matt Whittaker has to be thinking of the nixon attorney general precedents, and after he takes that oath of office in this job and after he is surrounded by the Justice Department professionals who are advising him on a daily basis and watching him and he knows theyre watching him, and he knows they will be available and ready to testify against him under oath in any kind of obstruction of justice case, he has to be he has to be very nervous in this job tonight. This is not an easy place for him to do what donald trump wants him to do and then survive with his life as he knows it. You know, youre absolutely right. There are strong institutional pressures at the Justice Department. Theres a strong culture thereof following the rules, a culture of independents that will argue for him to behave responsibly in this job. But you have the fact that donald trump put him in this job with a very clear expectation he will not recuse himself. There are a dozen of people that trump could have picked the acting attorney general. Thats just about what any other person does in these jams. He reached down to find this one person who has a demonstrated public hostility to the Mueller Probe. I suspect he has some insurance, implicit maybe explicit that he will not recuse himself. And the president at least thinks that on some of the close calls, maybe on close calls whether to approve a subpoena to the president , the close call whether to authorize the release of a report to congress, he thinks Matthew Whittaker will side with him, the president and not Robert Mueller, and thats why he got this job. Richard nixon believed robert bork was going to block, and that is not what robert borke did. We will see if Matthew Whittaker is a robert borke. And if he is, thats a good thing for america, actually. Thank you both for joining us in discussion tonight. Really appreciate it. And when we come back one of the big winners last night because he will now move into the majority of the house of representatives is congressman eric swalwell. He will join us. Connecting people. Uniting the world. Today congressman eric swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee tweeted its time the protect mueller, theres already bipartisan support in the senate. House should pass legislation immediately. Trump may act like he above the facts but hes not above the law. Congressman, congratulations on your reelection last night which was never in doubt, but i want to begin with congratulations about the new feeling youre having tonight, which is in being in the majority of the house of representatives. How does that change things . Greatly it changes things, lawrence. Im also thrilled that 25 candidates and counting are in their 40s and under, so their future will have bright energetic new candidates coming to Congress Ready to stand and defend our democracy. If wed lost the house of representatives last night id be much more worried. But im honored to join a caucus thats going to defend our democracy now and lets see what the president intends to do with it. If you lost the house of representatives last night im not sure you would have bothered to tweet today about protecting Robert Mueller. Thats would have been impossible. Thats right notch were able to insist Robert Mueller is protected, and insist that this new acting attorney general recuse himself because of his conflicts of interest. And devon nunez, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was reelected last night in california, but hes now been reelected into utter powerless. Adam schiff, the democratic presumably will become the chair of the intelligence committee. How does that change what the House Intelligence Committee will now do . Well, the days of free passes, looking the other way in this ollie ollie oxen free environment that the president has enjoyed is over. But i think adam schiff under his leadership, we will fill in the gaps of the investigation not to look backward but make sure we protect upcoming elections. But also we will conduct all of the investigations that the republicans were unwilling to conduct. We dont want to lead with investigations, lawrence. I think on infrastructure, the dream act, background checks, reforming our democracy, prescription drugs, i think theres opportunity to put bills on the president s desks but were not going to look the other way. I think thats happened for far too long and were going to defend this democracy. People have been trying to see Donald Trumps tax returns since he became a president ial candidate. Theres never been a chance do that. Now there is. The house and ways and Means Committee has the power to request that. They got Richard Nixons returns when they suspected Richard Nixon of being involved in some tax issues, and they found 500,000 worth of underpayment by Richard Nixon on his tax returns. They not only have the power to do that but to reveal those tax returns to the full house. Those tax returns could be if revealed to the full house by the ways and Means Committee of interest to the intelligence committee, couldnt they . Thats right. We shouldnt do it for any voyeuristic interest but the American People have the right to know if the president is a cheat. If you look at that the New York Times investigative report, that exhaustive report, it suggests hes a cheat and that his financial interests are in conflict with our domestic and Foreign Policy interests. And we see that play out in saudi arabia, in turkey, see that playing out with easing sanctions in china on zte so he can get a 5 million loan the same week on a chinese property. So we certainly want to know if the president is corrupt and if that affects a decision the white house makes. The congress was actually given this power to obtain individual tax returns specifically for this reason, the possibility of corruption by the president or members of his administration. So that was a very specific use anticipated in giving congress this power in the first place. Thats right. And in the last 40 plus years only two pres didnt comply with that Richard Nixon and donald trump. Boy, the others were forthcoming and that should tell us everything we need to know. Congressman eric swalwell, congratulations. And when we come back Jill Winebanks will join us with her unique experience as having been in the office of a special prosecutor with what this new acting attorney general can mean to special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Thats coming up. The firing of Jeff Sessions the firing of Jeff Sessions today has been compared to the saturday night massacre in which president Richard Nixon fired his special prosecutor after his attorney general, Eliot Richardson, refused to carry out that order. Attorney general Eliot Richardson resigned instead of carrying out the order from president nixon. The Deputy Attorney general then resigned, refusing to carry out president nixons order. And then solicitor general robert bork carried out the order by nixon to fire Archibald Cox, but then under public pressure, when a new special prosecutor was appointed, robert bork issued a new Justice Department rule, protecting the special prosecutor. That rule said the attorney general will not countermand or interfere with the special prosecutors decisions or actions. The special prosecutor will determine whether and to what extent he will inform or consult with the attorney general about the conduct of his duties and responsibilities. The special prosecutor will be provided with such funds and facilities to carry out his responsibilities, as he may reasonably require. The special prosecutor may, from time to time, make public statements or reports as he deems appropriate and shall, upon completion of his assignment, submit a final report to the appropriate people or entities or congress. And so, the question tonight, is the new acting attorney general as honorable as Richard Nixons acting attorney general, robert bork . Here is the man who Richard Nixon installed as his acting attorney general, robert bork, after he fired the special prosecutor who was investigating Richard Nixon and his administration. I can only say that im not going to walk out of this job, out of this town as the man who in any way compromised investigations or prosecutions. That was robert bork, who guaranteed the new special prosecutor, then leon jaworski, full independence after Richard Nixon ordered the firing of the First Special prosecutor, Archibald Cox. Our next guest lived through all of us. Joining us now, Jill Winebanks. I can only imagine what it was like for you during the saturday night massacre, seeing your boss, special prosecutor, fired. But then robert bork, very much to the countrys surprise, protected, deliberately did everything he could to and issued a rule that protected your investigation. I think i know how it will mueller team feels tonight. There has to be huge anxiety. We have an acting attorney general now, who has called the investigation a hoax and a witch hunt and therefore has exhibited what i would consider to be a conflict of interest in terms of overseeing it. So they must be very anxious about what will happen and im hoping that theyre taking precautions to make sure that they protect themselves, at least until the new Democratic House can take action to formally and officially protect them through legislation. Jill, on the night that it happened, robert bork was the Matthew Whitaker of his day. He was condemned by liberals and democrats all over the country for carrying out the firing of the special prosecutor. But what most of those people who condemned robert bork did not really Pay Attention to after the fact is that robert bork did not, apparently, interfere with your investigation. He did not. And he actually there was debate that night and the next morning as to whether we had been fired or just archie cox had been fired, just the special prosecutor. It turned out that we had been abolished, but bork did reappoint the entire office. So he did take the steps, but that was because of a huge public outcry. Mail in the old days, no email, but actual snail mail was delivered in huge quantities to our office, to the congress, and to the white house. And the reaction was three days after the firing, nixon had to make a uturn. He said, i will give you the tapes. I will appoint a new special prosecutor, but much like what happened with us, we didnt trust the new special prosecutor. Why was he appointing someone new . Why didnt he just bring back Archibald Cox . So why do we need a new attorney general . And what will this mean in terms of what he can do to stymie the investigation . He has already expressed a distrust of the investigation, so he can start putting real holds on what they are able to do, who they can indict, who they can investigate, who they can go forward with. So it can be a real showstopper without firing mueller. Thats why there is a big protest planned for tomorrow by indivisible, and i believe, moveon is also doing this, at 5 00 tomorrow in chicago, anyway. So i dont know if its nationwide at 5 00. There will be a protest about the act of firing sessions. And although he technically said he resigned, he resigned with the request of the president. So thats firing. And the history of the nixon era shows that Matthew Whitaker has plenty to fear about being investigated himself for obstruction, as acting attorney general, if he does, in any way, conspire with donald trump to do that. Jill winebanks, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Im sure were going to have a lot to say about this as we continue covering it. Tonights last word is next. Time for tonights last word. We have affirmed that while this could go down as the darkest time in our history, we wont let it be. And instead, we will be defined by our hopes, not our fears. Ayanna pressley gets stop fearing your alarm clock. With zzzquil pure zzzs. A drugfree blend of botanicals with melatonin that supports your Natural Sleep cycle so you can seize the morning. Zzzquil pure zzzs. The full value of your new car . Youd be better off throwing your money right into the harbor. Im gonna regret that. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement, well replace the full value of your car. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The roasted core wrap. Ways to lose stubborn belly fat. 2, 1. Not cool. Freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting . 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Hehehehe. Time for tonights last word. We have affirmed that while this could go down as the darkest time in our history, we wont let it be. And instead, we will be defined by our hopes, not our fears. Ayanna pressley gets tonights last word. She is the first africanamerican member of the house of representatives elected in massachusetts. Tonight, Jeff Sessions is out of a job, fired. The morning after voters put democrats back in charge of the house, his replacement, the acting attorney general, has already said the Mueller Investigation needs to be reigned in. Then the president showed up at a combative news conference. The president ignoring the morningafter reality, calling the midterms almost a complete victory. Then he goes after his fellow republicans who didnt support him and tonight hes punished a threat work correspondent. And about those potential house investigations. Democratic leaders say they know what theyre doing and theyll do it right. The 11th hour begins now. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters
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