And couldnt. One point i want to make is among the people who dont like that story are republican senators. Because they know where the money comes from. It comes from their projects. They also have projects that are in that application pipeline and they dont have an individual there whose job it is to cover their state in the transportation. To make sure that one states projects are not only stovepiped at the department so that they go right to the stop, they go right to the chief of staff of the department but also to make sure those patrons specifically are serving the political needs of one particular politician in that state who happens to be married to the cabinet secretary. I mean, this is the sort of thing you would find out was happening in some Banana Republic around the world and you would be like yeah, thats why they cant get state Department Funded blah, blah, blah. Theyre too corrupt. In this case, its Mitch Mcconnells family it is the department that operates most like the old earmark system and the old system was actually for the same kind of thing. It was for the same kinds you have building projects and renovation projects. So this is Mitch Mcconnell basically the earmark system ended for everyone apparently except Mitch Mcconnell. They could make it fair. They could give every senator a spouse in the cabinet. Yeah, that would work. Bigger cabinet, much bigger. Thank you, rachel. In congress, every vote is a story. Some more dramatic than others. And few are more dramatic than the votes by seven republican members of the House Judiciary Committee in favor of impeaching the republican president in 1974. Were going to bring you one of those stories tonight in the congressmans own words. A conservative southern republican whose mother told him that his political career would be over if he voted to impeach Richard Nixon but he believed that republicans had an extrack obligation to hold a republican president accountable. That congressman would not recognize his Republican Party in congress today. Were going to show you the video of that congressman at the end of this hour because we have so much of the news of the day to cover before that. You will see that congressman fighting back tears when he was describing what it was like to cast that vote against the republican president ten years after he cast that vote to impeach Richard Nixon. That moment still brought him to tears when he thought about it. And youll want to hear what principled republicans sounded like back then when the Judiciary Committee was considering the impeachment of Richard Nixon and it is a very important historical Reference Point today because that is not what we heard in the House Judiciary Committee today. Once again, evidence was presented against a republican president today in the House Judiciary Committee but republicans on the committee showed no indication that they took the matter seriously. While House Judiciary Committee chairman jerry nadler is still in negotiations with Robert Mueller to testify about the Mueller Report and while chairman nadler is still in negotiations to release more of the underlying material to the committee, chairman nadler began convening today what the committee expects to be a series of hearings about the Mueller Report beginning with witnesses who were not involved in the Mueller Report but offered their professional assessments of it. The first witness was former Nixon White House counsel john dean who testified against president nixon during the congressional investigation of the president and ultimately pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the investigation of president nixon. And john dean then fully cooperated with congress and the special counsel investigating president nixon. And john dean said that the Mueller Report is todays version of the evidence against Richard Nixon that the special prosecutor delivered to the Judiciary Committee in 1974. In many ways, the Mueller Report is to President Trump what the socalled watergate road map officially titled the grand jury report and recommendation concerning transmission of evidence to the house of representatives was to president richard flix on, stated a little differently, special counsel mueller has provided this committee with a road map. John dean took particular interest in the value of former trump white House Counsel don mcgahns testimony because don mcgahn head the same position in the white house that john dean held in the Nixon White House. Because of my testimony, the model code of the aba today makes very clear in rule 1. 13 that mr. Mcgahn represents not donald trump but the office of the president. His client is the office of the president. And i think he owes that office his testimony before this committee. The ranking republican member of the House Judiciary Committee made light of john deans testimony. This committee is now hearing from the 70s and they want their star witness back. And it went downhill from there with the republicans on the committee, none of whom made any serious points during the hearing. We would show you if they did, but there is simply nothing to show you from that side of the committee. President trumps reaction to john deans testimony was predictable. Look, john deans been a loser for many years. Former federal prosecutor joyce vance who join us in a moment offered the committee her assessment of the Mueller Report. The facts contained in that report would be sufficient to prove all of the elements necessary to charge multiple counts of obstruction of justice. The evidence is not equivocal nor is the charging decision a close call. And i would be willing to personally indict the case and to try the case. I would have confidence that the evidence would be sufficient to obtain a guilty verdict and to win on appeal. The House Judiciary Committee announced today that the Justice Department has finally agreed to provide congress with key evidence thats what theyre calling it, key evidence collected by special prosecutor Robert Mueller that Committee Members said could head shed light on possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Trump. The exact scope of the material the Justice Department has agreed to provide has not been made public. The New York Times reports the house still plans to vote on tuesday to authorize the committee to go to a federal court against attorney general barr tore seek full enforcement of its subpoena and to petition a judge to unseal grand jury secrets related to the case for congress. But in a sign of newfound cooperation, the house will not formally vote to hold mr. Barr in contempt of congress leveling a criminal accusation against him at least for now. And in a new poll from the Des Moines Register of iowans who plan to caucus for democrats, 4 say that congress should continue to investigate the president. But should not launch impeachment proceedings. 42 say that congress should launch impeachment proceedings against the president. Leading off our discussion tonight is one of the former federal prosecutors who testified before the House Judiciary Committee today, joyce vance. She is an msnbc legal contributor and testified on her own behalf as a legal expert today. Also joining us, jill winebanks, former assistant Watergate Special prosecutor and analyst. John heilemann is the National Affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc, executive producer of showtimes the circus. Joyce if you asked me a month ago, who do i think is going to testify about the Mueller Report, i would have said Robert Mueller. Turns out its joyce vance. You got the surprising call to give your assessment. What was it like in general in that Committee Room and was it fair for me to say at least i didnt hear any serious point made by the republican side of the committee today . Correct me if im wrong. I didnt hear every word. Maybe i missed something. You know, i think its fair, lawrence, and it was a little bit disappointing. I had hoped we would have the opportunity to engage with legislators from both parties to discuss the evidence and to talk through how prosecutors analyze evidence and how they make an assessment about whether or not charges should be brought but that wasnt the inquiry that republicans were there for today. Joyce, what do you think the assessment about whether or not charges should be brought but that wasnt the inquiry that republicans were there for today. Joyce, what do you think the value of todays hearing was . I hope it was helpful for some of the legislate tors. I hope that the people that were watching us on cspan got the opportunity to hear a little bit about how prosecutors operate in the real world because we understand you know, one of the things that Prosecutors Offices dont necessarily do a good job of is taking to the public how we work. So often, the evidence that prosecutors use has to remain secret while these decisions are being made. This is an opportunity we have this body of evidence, and now former prosecutors like myself can talk with the public about how you use the law, the elements prosecutors have to problem to assess the evidence and decide whether you have a prosecutable case or not. Jill winebanks, this should have been odd for you to watch having worked on the watergate case where in fact, republicans did cooperate in the House Judiciary Committee a total of seven republicans ultimately voted for at least one article of impeachment against president nixon. Yes. It shows how different the world is now that there is absolutely no interest in the republicans in even listening. They did not ask any serious questions. They did not challenge any substantive thing that joyce vance or Barbara Mcquade or john dean said. Rather they attacked them. One even said wasnt that quaint which i found particularly offensive. In talking about a particular statement that was made about whether or not the laws were being faithfully executed. And i think that we need to get to a point where we may need to pass a law that says these hearings have to be broadcast on fox news because i think joyce correctly said she hopes she persuaded some legislators but i dont think that people who listen to fox news heard what was said today. And thats who we have to have hear this. The people need to hear or else you have the woman at the amash town hall who says i had no idea that there was anything negative in the Mueller Report. Because i listen to conservative news. And thats the problem is we need to have its sort of a chicken and egg. You need to have support to go ahead with impeachment bud you need to have impeachment to get the support. I think in watergate beat had Senate Hearings that preceded the Judiciary Committee hearings. And, of course, we had fact witnesses which is also very important. So i think that we need mcgahn, i think john dean did an excellent job and was very persuasive in showing the similarities between what he did and what is going on in this white house. And that he was punished for that and that they should be, too. But it would be much better to hear mcgahn himself. Lets listen to the comparison between president nixon and President Trump that was raised by congressman Eric Swalwells question to john dean. Comparing nixon to just any future administration, would you say there was a future administration that committed more crimes than the Nixon Administration as far as obstruction . I would say the Trump Administration is in fast competition with what happened to the Nixon Administration. Fast competition, John Heilemann. Fast competition indeed. You know, you note the kind of hearings today we basically had a hearing that was sort of two hearings which is a perfect metaphor for the two measures we live in, one america tethered to reality and another america tethered to the republican talking points that seek to knock down reality at every opportunity. He called john dean at one point a shes bag attorney. John dean was part of a criminal enterprise at one point in the white house but then what he is remembered for mostly is he told the truth in the president s view that, makes him a shes bag attorney. That was the talking point the republicans prosecuted all day long. Jill just said this was a good table setting for setting out the issues and teeing up what now has to happen which is we must hear from not from the learned scholars and brilliant people like joyce and others but must hear from don olympic gan and the actual witnesses to the crimes in question. Jill, to the point of john deans truth telling during the investigation, my understanding of the history of this is john deans veracity was tested and it was tested by you and the special Prosecutors Office in more than one way. And he proved to your satisfaction to be telling the truth. Theres no question. Let me just say during watergate, john dean was the equivalent of a computer because he was our source of knowledge in the days before computers. And my relationship with him was if i needed to fact, i would ask him. Since then, he and i have been on a panel together and have become weve become friends. And i respect him enormously. I did then, too. He testified before the senate based on his memory alone. He did not know there were tapes. That was something he found out at the same time we did. Which was long after his testimony. And it proved that everything he said in that testimony was fundamentally 100 accurate. He was so consistent in having the dates right and the substance conversations were exactly right. When he said on march 21st, i said there was a cancer on the presidency and president said well, i know where i can get a million dollars, it all was there. All you had to do was listen to the tapes. But i believed him before that. He was an incredible memory. He had very good accuracy. And i think that some other witnesses like mcgahn could be the same and they owe it to the public to do their job and come forward. And joyce, on the democratic side of the committee, the reality side of the hearing, what do you think had i were the most important points in terms of the members interest on the democratic side today . The democrats seemed to be trying to get a sense of we have these ten episodes of obstruction that mueller considers in the report. They were pushing for details on which of those incidents were the most significant. And it seemed like the consensus on the panel and as the Congress People talked among themselves was that this episode war where don mcgahn who has been previously directed by the president to fire bob mueller, then has that story come to light about six months later in the press and hes directed by the president to essentially create a document to create false evidence that says that the president never asked him to fire bob mueller, that seems to be the most compelling piece of evidence that the legislators focused on. John heilemann, obstruction of justice, those are the two parallels between the trump and the nixon investigations. Yes. I mean look, and i think in the end, you know, theres still is i think enormous ground that is people dont focus on in the Mueller Report related to the first part of it related to russia, but that is the parallel. It is the parallel and it is there are now millions of republicans and dozens of elected republicans who wish to pretend that obstruction of justice is somehow not a crime or is a lesser crime or is in some way the purview of the president and his executive power if the president does it must be legal and, of course, that is false. It is the most powerful parallel, always the most powerful parallel weve seen so many instances in which the president acts with apparent corrupt intent. The example joyce gave a second ago i find the most compel. Theres not a lawyer in the country left right or center presented with that strip trump away from it and ask the request whether that is not obstruction of justice. Theres not a one na wont say that is obstruction of justice dead to rights. Your reading of that iowa poll with 4 saying continue to investigate but dont go to impeachment and 44 coming up behind that saying go ahead, go to impeachment, 42 . My reading that have poll is that investigate obviously there are. People in the Democratic Party who think that trump needs to be impeached but the 48 is not a we will never be open to impeachment. The 4 seniors investigate away as of now were