John McCain on recent reports about Trump: 'It's reaching Watergate size and scale

Republican Sen. John McCain invoked the biggest scandal in modern political history on Tuesday when finding a comparison for recent reports about President Donald Trump.

"We've seen this movie before. It's reaching Watergate size and scale," McCain said at a dinner for the International Republican Institute. "This is not good for the country."

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that in February, Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the investigation into national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump unexpectedly fired Comey last week, in a move Trump said he made in part because of Comey's handling of an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia in the 2016 election.

Several Democratic lawmakers called the dismissal "Nixonian" and compared it to the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973, when Nixon ordered the firing of the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate break-in and cover-up. Nixon's approval rating never recovered, and he resigned in disgrace the following year.

McCain has been consistently critical of Trump since Comey's firing, and is one of just a handful of congressional Republicans who has called for the Russia probe to be handled independently.