One of the more dramatic days in our nation’s history (so far).
The “Saturday Night Massacre” was the climactic series of events during the Watergate scandal that occurred on Saturday, October 20, 1973. It involved a series of resignations within the United States Department of Justice in protest of President Richard Nixon‘s order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was investigating Nixon’s involvement in Watergate. The events followed the refusal by Cox to drop a subpoena for the Nixon White House tapes at Nixon’s request.
During a single evening on Saturday, October 20, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox; Richardson refused in protest and resigned effective immediately. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; Ruckelshaus also refused, and resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire Cox. Bork carried out the dismissal as Nixon asked. Bork stated that he had intended to resign afterward, but was persuaded by Richardson and Ruckelshaus to stay on for the good of the Justice Department. The impeachment process against Nixon began ten days later, on October 30, 1973. Leon Jaworski was appointed as the new special prosecutor on November 1, 1973, and on November 14, 1973, United States district judge Gerhard Gesell ruled that the dismissal had been illegal.
The Saturday Night Massacre was a brief, yet significant constitutional crisis that marked the turning point of the Watergate scandal. The political and public reactions to Nixon’s actions were negative and highly damaging to the president. Public opinion, which had previously been dormant, quickly turned against Nixon, and the president’s approval ratings fell to an abysmal 27 percent.[8] Nixon would resign the presidency 9 months and 20 days later, on August 9, 1974.
As a reminder, here is a 20 minute special from CBS Radio.
