Club for Growth President David McIntosh defended President Trump’s reported conversation with FBI Director James Comey about the investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn.
McIntosh offered the favorable analysis of Trump’s actions at the Federalist Society’s “Executive Branch Review Conference” on Wednesday. McIntosh is also a Federalist Society co-founder.
“What’s not appropriate is for Congress to try to direct the executive branch or the president in the execution of Article II powers,” McIntosh said at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel. “And today coming in on the drive, I heard an example of that as Sen. [John] McCain is criticizing President Trump for directing the FBI director on an investigation. I think it’s important for us to step back and remember the president has the power and the authority in the Constitution to enforce the laws.
“There’s nothing written in the Constitution about an FBI director or an independent investigatory agency so in fact if anybody could give Director Comey direction, it’s President Trump. Presidents in the past have adopted a policy that makes sense of insulating the FBI from other political direction, but nonetheless, the FBI reports to him.”
McIntosh’s willingness to stand with Trump is notable considering the Club for Growth’s staunch opposition to Trump throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. The Club for Growth spent millions on ads to stop Trump during the Republican presidential primary, who McIntosh had said since 2015 was “bad on economic policy.”
As political pressure mounts on elected Republicans to take action against Trump for allegedly urging Comey to drop an investigation into Trump associates, McIntosh’s statements may provide a roadmap for other right-leaning politicians deciding how to respond. McIntosh’s technical argument that Trump was well within his rights to direct Comey, as is alleged, was not an endorsement of the president’s conduct. He also neatly avoided any talk of the cries of a constitutional crisis coming from Trump’s opponents.
McIntosh did not, however, stay for the scheduled panel to debate his ideas against others at the Federalist Society conference who may be less hospitable to the president and walked off stage.
Doug Sachtleben, Club for Growth communications director, said in an email that McIntosh was headed to a previously scheduled meeting about tax reform with congressional Republicans.
