Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday night said the unfolding events are reaching a “Watergate size and scale,” after a report that President Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

“I think it’s reaching the point where it’s of Watergate size and scale, and a couple of other scandals we’ve seen,” The Arizona Republican said Tuesday night at the International Republican Institute’s 2017 Freedom Dinner, where CBS News’ Bob Schieffer interviewed McCain, an award honoree.

McCain’s comments are some of the strongest comments yet to come from a Republican. Even after the Tuesday night revelation of the memo, GOP members have hesitated to criticize the president, although pressure to do so is mounting.

Republican House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Tuesday night asked Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for any records documenting communication between Mr. Trump and Comey, and all 33 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked their Republican chairmen for a full-blown investigation into the president and his top White House aides.

McCain on Tuesday night said the president is dealing with a pretty smart lawyer, noting that Comey distributed the memo to others.
According to the memo, the day after Flynn submitted his resignation in February, Mr. Trump met with Comey in the Oval Office and told him: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Flynn resigned in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

News of the memo, first reported by The New York Times, comes only 24 hours after a report that the president shared inappropriate information with Russian diplomats in a meeting closed to the press last week, the day after firing Comey.