The Saturday Night Massacre.
This is one of the most important political events in my life. This is what happens to bring down a US President. It happened on October 20, 1973 when the Attorney General of the USA resigned and his deputy was fired because they insisted on upholding the law.
Within the week the first discussions of impeachment took place in the House Judiciary Committee, which is precisely where such things are discussed.
The resignation of AG Elliot Richardson, and the firing of Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus took place on Oct. 20, 1973. Of course, Solicitor General Robert Bork was the one who did the dirty deed of firing Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Bork said that he offered his resignation but was convinced that the DOJ in the hands of a low level staffer was not in the nation's interest. So he didn't resign.
When Bork was up for SCOTUS appointment, the public disagreed quite strongly with him. Frankly, I don't believe him.
Here's a short clip with the best coverage of that night, John Chancellor. This is the one I remember. Too bad that this clip isn't complete. But you'll get the idea how big this was:
Here's some more:
This is excellent documentary of this event, with all the principles interviewed. Yup, even Nixon.
John Chancellor provides an appropriate tag line in this video.
It was a bit over nine months after these events before Nixon would resign. In the meantime the stage was set. It was this single event that turned the tide.
And here is the entire Archibald Cox press conference that convinced Nixon that he should be fired. This happened on Friday. It's about an hour long.
Warning, it includes a couple of short ads at the beginning.
History buffs, I hope you enjoy.
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