--- title: James Comey Fired: Why Firing Is Compared to Richard Nixon description: Trump's dramatic termination of FBI director James Comey has historical echoes to Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre canonical: https://time.com/4773388/donald-trump-james-comey-fired-richard-nixon-saturday-night-massacre/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-10T00:27:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:01:41.252Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Everyone Is Comparing James Comey's Firing to Richard Nixon og:description: There are some similarities og:url: https://time.com/4773388/donald-trump-james-comey-fired-richard-nixon-saturday-night-massacre/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07c5faa044285b4e/6988ccd68fd2ee5ac8356ffb/comey-nixon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: comey-nixon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Everyone Is Comparing James Comey's Firing to Richard Nixon twitter:description: There are some similarities twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt07c5faa044285b4e/6988ccd68fd2ee5ac8356ffb/comey-nixon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Everyone Is Comparing James Comey's Firing to Richard Nixon > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d398bcdf-726a-4c5a-9a96-9067cb5dae90&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Comparing James Comey's Firing to Richard Nixon [Watch (HLS stream): Comparing James Comey's Firing to Richard Nixon](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rzpxxq3y.m3u8) (1:55)  _Published 2017-05-11. When President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey Tuesday, people were quick to cry Nixon._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 10, 2017 12:27 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 10, 2017 12:27 AM UTC When President Trump [fired FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4773210/donald-trump-fires-fbi-director-james-comey/) Tuesday, people were quick to cry Nixon. “This is Nixonian,” Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said. “This is nothing less than Nixonian,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) echoed. “Not since [Watergate](http://time.com/4534375/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-emails-watergate/) have our legal systems been so threatened and our faith in the independence and integrity of those systems so shaken,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.). Trump’s dramatic decision does have historical echoes to Nixon’s presidency: Trump fired Comey, who was overseeing an investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia. President Nixon also fired someone investigating him. In 1973, in what would become known as the [Saturday Night Massacre](http://time.com/4697223/trump-nixon-comparisons/), Nixon ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, a special prosecutor looking into the burglary at the tip of the iceberg of the Watergate scandal. Both Nixon’s attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned in protest, and the “massacre” marked a key step in the scandal that led to his resignation less than a year later. But, as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library pointed out on Twitter, the comparison doesn’t track all the way. “FUN FACT: President Nixon never fired the Director of the FBI #FBIDirector #notNixonian,” the library tweeted Tuesday evening. > [](https://twitter.com/NixonLibrary/status/862083605081862145) The last president to actually cut the FBI Director was Bill Clinton, who fired William Sessions in 1993 amid ethical concerns. But it hasn’t been since Nixon that a president terminated a person investigating him. ## Transcript Well I'm not a crook. On October 20th, 1973, President Nixon ordered Justice Department officials to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox who had been appointed to investigate the Watergate scandal. Both the attorney general and the deputy attorney general refused the president's orders and resigned. Nixon's new acting attorney general. Robert Bork complied and fired Cox, which effectively dismantled the investigation. Cox's firing prompted heavy criticism, and was seen as a key point in the events that led to Nixon's eventual resignation. [ MUSIC ] I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford Will be sworn in as president, at that hour, in this office. More than 40 years later, the Trump Administration has been clouded by an ongoing FBI investigation into potential communications between members of his campaign, and Russia during the 2016 election. The FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission Is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Trump fired James Comey shortly after Comey requested more resources for the agency's Russia probe. Why did you fire Director Comey? Because he wasn't doing a good job, very simply. He was not doing a good job. But while many people have drawn parallels, historians note the two situations are not exactly the same, as Nixon did not fire the head of the FBI. 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