Nixon Library To Trump: Not Even Nixon Did That

No, the nation's 37th president never fired his FBI director.
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President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey is being compared to President Richard Nixon’s infamous 1973 Saturday Night Massacre.

That’s when Nixon ordered first his attorney general, then the deputy attorney general to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was investigating the Watergate scandal.

Both resigned instead, and Cox was ultimately fired by Nixon’s solicitor general, Robert Bork. But as the Nixon Library pointed out on Twitter, the 37th president never fired his FBI director:

While Nixon may have never fired his FBI director, the investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia have led a number of critics to compare the two presidents.

A New York Times analysis called it “echoes of Watergate,” while Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) called Trump’s moves “nothing less than Nixonian.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that Nixon was the 36th president.

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