Shortly after the news broke of FBI director James Comey’s firing, MSNBC breaking news anchor Brian Williams invoked Watergate by referring to the ousting as “the Tuesday afternoon massacre.”
After hearing from a NBC correspondent report on the firing, Williams said: “All right, Peter Alexander at the White House. What may become known as the Tuesday afternoon massacre at the FBI.”
The line is in reference to former President Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre,” where independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox was fired in October 1973 during the Watergate scandal. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus also resigned.
