Reprising memories of the famed Saturday Night Massacre that lead to the resignation of President Nixon, Donald Trump is in the beginning stages of attempting to purge Washington of his enemies.
The latest indicator of this was Trump's order removing former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance, today calling Brennan a "loudmouth, partisan, political hack."
Brennan has been a vocal and outspoken critic of President Trump, prompting the president to label him as "easily the worst CIA director in history."
Said Brennan in an MSNBC interview, "The fact that he's using a security clearance of a former CIA director as a pawn in his public relations strategy I think is just so reflective of somebody who, quite frankly, I don't want to use this term maybe, but he's drunk on power. He really is, and I think he's abusing the powers of that office."
But taking away Brennan's security clearance apparently is only the beginning. The Washington Post reported Friday that the White House has drafted documents revoking the security clearances of current and former officials whom President Trump has demanded be punished for criticizing him or playing a role in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Post quoted a senior White House official as saying that Trump wants to sign “most if not all” of those documents. The official indicated that communications aides, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and deputy chief of staff Bill Shine have discussed the optimum times to announce those actions as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles.
Get that? They are planning to deliberately release the names of targeted present and former officials hoping to distract the American people from otherwise unfavorable news.
It's all reminiscent of that dark Saturday on October 20, 1973, when embattled President Richard Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus.
The role of attorney general then fell to Solicitor General Robert Bork, who complied with Nixon’s request and dismissed Cox. Less than a half hour later, the White House dispatched FBI agents to close off the offices of the Special Prosecutor, Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General.
All of this resulted in more than 50,000 letters being sent to Congress calling for Nixon's impeachment. The new prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, continued the investigation,uncovering incriminating White House tapes, and ultimately Nixon was forced to resign.
Trump has been belittling his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, pressuring him to call off the Russia investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. Will Sessions be fired next? Then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and then Mueller?
Trump should take a lesson from history, from Watergate and its consequences.
The American people, and even members of his own party, can only take so much.