WATCH: Media Flip Their Lids Over Trump Firing James Comey

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."