october 20, 1973 was fired in the saturday night massacre.
october 20, 1973 was fired in the saturday night massacre.
who was fired in the saturday night massacre?
october 20, 1973
"the new york times" and others drew comparisons to the 1973 saturday night massacre, during the watergate scandal, when attorney general elliot richardson and deputy attorney general william ruckelshaus both resigned after refusing to carry out president richard nixon's order to dismiss special prosecutor archibald cox. by analogy, some cable networks began calling yates's dismissal the "monday night massacre". however, watergate investigative journalist carl bernstein, speaking on cnn, rejected the comparison. "there's a big difference, because the saturday night massacre was really about firing the attorney general when nixon was the target of an investigation and was actively obstructing justice", he said. "i think the president is within his rights here to fire the attorney general, that he has that ability."
sally yates
nixon then ordered the solicitor general of the united states, robert bork, as acting head of the justice department, to fire cox. both richardson and ruckelshaus had given personal assurances to congressional oversight committees that they would not interfere, but bork had not. although bork later claimed he believed nixon's order to be valid and appropriate, he still considered resigning to avoid being "perceived as a man who did the president's bidding to save my job". nevertheless, having been brought to the white house by limousine and sworn in as acting attorney general, bork wrote the letter firing cox – and the saturday night massacre was complete.
saturday night massacre