When President Trump last week fired the Director of the FBI, many commentators made comparisons with the so-called ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ in 1973, when Richard Nixon fired Archibald Cox, the Watergate Special Investigator. David Fitzgerald, historian at UCC, joined Myles Dungan on The History Show to explain what that crisis was about, and how accurate the comparisons with today's White House are. He began by giving a brief summary of the Watergate scandal.
"This whole thing kicks off in May 1972 when burglars are caught trying to break into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel."
It becomes apparent after the arrest that the burglars have ties to the White House. That's the beginnings of the scandal, but it had a long way to go and, of course, it ended with the president's resignation in 1974.
"Obviously, in both cases, the key issue seems to be obstruction of justice."
There do appear to be parallels with the troubles of today's White House, but for now they appear to be limited – Nixon didn't have Twitter, sadly – but there might be quite a way to go before we can tell just how limited.
You can listen to The History Show in full here