Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump said that he didn't fire special counsel Robert Mueller because firings "didn't work out too well" for former President Richard Nixon, though he claimed he had the Constitutional authority to do so.

"I wasn't going to fire (Mueller). You know why? Because I watched Richard Nixon go around firing everybody, and that didn't work out too well," Trump said in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that aired Sunday.

Trump appeared to be referring to the "Saturday Night Massacre," in which Nixon, on October 20, 1973, ordered the firing of Archibald Cox as special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation . Rather than comply with the order, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned. Cox was eventually fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork.

The Mueller report describes how Trump did try to fire the special counsel, despite saying in the ABC News interview that he "wasn't going to fire Mueller."

The report said that Trump directed then-White House counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller removed. Instead of following the order, McGahn prepared a resignation letter, informed his deputies and quickly got in touch with his personal attorney. Despite this incident, and other efforts by Trump to impede the investigation, Mueller was allowed to finish his work.

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