Note to wife:
On Tuesday, President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing an investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.
Politicians with long memories are comparing this to the “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973 when President Nixon ordered his attorney general to fire the Justice Department’s special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who was looking into the Watergate scandal. The attorney general, Elliot Richardson, resigned rather than follow orders. When Richardson’s deputy, William Ruckelshaus, also refused to fire Cox, Nixon fired him. (Interestingly, the job of axing the special prosecutor was then carried out by the #3 man in the Justice Department, Robert Bork, who later famously was rejected by the Senate as a Supreme Court nominee.) In the following days, impeachment resolutions were introduced in Congress, and ultimately, of course, Nixon resigned.
While Trump’s action doesn’t quite measure up to Nixon’s, Republican leaders in Congress have dismissed calls for a special investigation. Despite some grumbling, it appears Trump will escape any serious ramifications. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had fired Comey — the uproar would be deafening.