Unlike Trump, Nixon actually won the popular vote, but the clumsy CREEP-sponsored break-in at the DNC HQ in the Watergate complex eventually caught up with him.
In case you missed it by dint of being born too late or if you memory is dusty, this Washington Post article gives a pretty thorough account of Nixon’s Saturday Might Massacre as compared to Trump’s legacy tribute last night now dubbed the Monday Night Massacre.
In the dark days of the Watergate scandal, former president Richard Nixon pushed out two attorney generals and the special prosecutor of the Watergate investigation in what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
On the night of Oct. 20, 1973, the United States was gripped by a constitutional crisis unlike any in its history.
President Richard Nixon, under investigation for his role in the Watergate scandal, ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor handling the case, rather than cooperate with him. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned in protest, after refusing to carry out the president’s orders. Nixon went on to abolish the special prosecutor’s office entirely.
The events became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” It marked one of the most sordid moments in White House history, with the president using his political power to thwart an investigation and retaliate against his opponents in government.
“Saturday Night Massacre” re-emerged in the popular lexicon again on Monday, when President Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates for instructing Justice Department lawyers not to defend his order shutting U.S. borders to refugees worldwide and travelers from seven mostly Muslim countries.
Just hours after Acting Attorney General Sally Yates ordered the Department of Justice not to defend President Donald Trump’s refugee ban, the Trump administration ousted her from office. Yates, an Obama appointee, was tasked with serving as attorney general from Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration until his own AG nominee was approved. On Monday evening, Yates announced that the DOJ would not defend Trump’s ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries while she was in office. Hours later, the Trump administration issued a statement calling Yates “weak” and announcing Dana Boente as her replacement.
The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not named in the article, is Daniel Ragsdale. He remains at ICE as a deputy director, but the one-two punch stirred echoes of Nixon’s October 1973 purge.
Speaking of purges, what’s up at the State Department? There were these from last week.
In what could prove to be a major setback for secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson, the entire senior-management team at the State Department has resigned—the latest in a string of high-profile departures that has been characterized as a mass exodus of career government officials since Donald Trump’s victory.
While it is not unusual for there to be turnover during the presidential transition process, the breadth of the resignations caught some by surprise. A handful of top State Department officials—Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary of management; Gentry Smith, the director of the Office of Foreign Admissions; and assistant secretaries Joyce Barr and Michelle Bond—abruptly announced their resignations on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports. The exit of the four officials—all of whom were career foreign-service workers and have worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations—could present a challenge for the department, which was already short-staffed after two other top-level officials vacated their posts earlier this month.
The circumstances surrounding the sudden slew of resignations are unclear. Kennedy was expected to retire on Friday, but Josh Rogin of The Washington Postreports that it is “a matter of dispute inside the department” whether Kennedy decided to leave or was forced out. CNN’s Elise Labott, citing officials, reports that Kennedy, Smith, Barr, and Bond were fired by the new administration in an effort to “clean house.”
The White House usually asks career officials in such positions to stay on for some time
The firings leave a huge management hole at the State Department
Washington (CNN)Two senior administration officials said Thursday that the Trump administration told four top State Department management officials that their services were no longer needed as part of an effort to “clean house” at Foggy Bottom.
Patrick Kennedy, who served for nine years as the undersecretary for management, Assistant Secretaries for Administration and Consular Affairs Joyce Anne Barr and Michele Bond, and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office for Foreign Missions, were sent letters by the White House that their service was no longer required, the sources told CNN.
I know oust and purge are words we do not normally associate with our peaceful, bloodless transitions of power in this country, but it is probably unnecessary to remind you that nothing is normal – especially our new special relationship with Russia.
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