Media figures across the dial reacted strongly to President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, with some calling it a "constitutional crisis" and likening it to aspects of the Watergate scandal.
Comey's dismissal drew accusations that Trump was trying to cover up the federal investigation into alleged collusion between his presidential campaign and the Russians in 2016.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said the firing was a "grotesque abuse of power" by Trump and was the sort of thing that happens in "non-democracies." Fellow CNN analyst David Gregory said Trump's actions and the subsequent White House spin demonstrated "disdain for the presidency."
Progressive radio show host Stephanie Miller echoed Democrats calling the saga a "constitutional crisis."
MSNBC host Chris Matthews called it the "Tuesday Night Massacre," a reference to the "Saturday Night Massacre" when Richard Nixon ordered the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973. He later added Trump's actions had the "whiff of fascism" to them.
One of the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, Carl Bernstein, said on CNN that the dismissal marked a "terribly dangerous moment in American history."
ABC's Cokie Roberts said the Watergate comparisons were "understandable," and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said, in a rare voiceover segment on "Morning Joe," that the "echoes of Watergate" were filling Washington, D.C.
"The question this morning is whether the centuries-old system of checks and balances will swing into action," he said.
NBC legal correspondent Ari Melber remarked that Trump's letter to Comey in which he said Comey had told him three times he was not under investigation could open him up to criminal liability.
"This is no longer about Donald Trump," MSNBC guest Mike Barnicle said. "It's about the presidency, which is being diminished on a daily basis by his behavior."