This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/13/white-house-staffer-john-mccain-comment-leak-sarah-sanders

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
White House staffer's McCain comment should not have leaked – Sanders White House staffer's McCain comment should not have leaked – Sanders
(35 minutes later)
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told staffers on Friday that an aide’s offensive comment about Senator John McCain was inappropriate but should not have been leaked to the media. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told staffers an aide’s offensive comment about Senator John McCain – that his opinion should be discounted because “he’s dying anyway” – was inappropriate but should not have been leaked to the media.
Sanders told communications staffers in a private meeting it was inappropriate for aide Kelly Sadler to dismiss McCain’s opinion during a recent closed-door meeting because, Sadler said, “he’s dying anyway”. One of McCain’s closest friends in Washington, meanwhile, suggested he thought Donald Trump should apologise to McCain.
McCain, the 81-year-old Arizona Republican senator, was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. He left Washington in December and had surgery last month for an infection. The 81-year-old Arizona Republican senator was the Republican nominee for president in 2008. Last July, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the aggressive brain cancer which killed Senator Ted Kennedy and Beau Biden, son of former vice-president Joe Biden. McCain left Washington in December and had surgery last month for an infection.
Sanders said the leak was selfish and distracted from Donald Trump’s agenda and “everything we’re trying to accomplish for the American people”, according to a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting. Now resting at his Arizona ranch, McCain will this month publish a book, The Restless Wave, in which he is critical of Trump and his record in office.
She noted that it garnered attention following the president’s welcoming home of three Americans detained in North Korea and a forthcoming summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore. Reporting Sanders’ comments about leaks, which were made in a private meeting on Friday, the Associated Press cited a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity.
During the meeting, White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp defended Sadler, saying the private comments should not have been leaked to the media, the person said. According to the source, Sanders told communications staffers the remark by Kelly Sadler, a special assistant to the president, was inappropriate. But the press secretary added that the leak of the comment was selfish and distracted from Trump’s agenda and “everything we’re trying to accomplish for the American people”.
Sanders declined to condemn Sadler’s comments during a White House briefing on Friday, saying she would not “validate a leak out of an internal staff meeting”. I just wish somebody from the White House would tell the country that was inappropriate
Sadler is a special assistant to the president. She has declined to respond to requests for comment on her McCain remark. Sanders, the source said, noted that the remark took attention away from Trump’s welcoming home of three Americans detained in North Korea and a forthcoming summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
During the meeting, the AP source said, White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp defended Sadler, saying the private comment should not have been leaked to the media.
At the White House press briefing on Friday, Sanders declined to condemn Sadler’s comment, saying she would not “validate a leak out of an internal staff meeting”. Sadler has declined to respond to requests for comment.
McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, said on ABC: “I don’t understand what kind of environment you’re working in when that would be acceptable and then you could come to work the next day and still have a job.”
The remark has provided fuel for Trump’s Republican critics. On Saturday Mitt Romney, the 2012 presidential candidate who is now running for the Senate in Utah, wrote on Twitter: “John McCain makes America great. Father, grandfather, Navy pilot, POW hero bound by honor, an incomparable and irrepressible statesman. Those who mock such greatness only humiliate themselves and their silent accomplices.”
McCain’s close friend, the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, told CBS in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday the remark was a “pretty disgusting thing to say, if it was a joke, it was a terrible joke”.
Speaking on Face the Nation, the senator and sometime presidential golfing companion said: “I just wish somebody from the White House would tell the country that was inappropriate, that’s not who we are in the Trump administration.
“John McCain can be criticised for any political decision he’s ever made or any vote he’s ever cast but he’s an American hero. And I think most Americans would like to see the Trump administration do better in situations like this. It doesn’t hurt you at all to do the right thing and to be big.”
Asked if he thought Trump should apologise, Graham said: “I’ll leave that up to him, but if something happened like that in my office – somebody in my office said such a thing about somebody, I would apologise on behalf of the office.”
John McCainJohn McCain
Trump administrationTrump administration
US politicsUS politics
RepublicansRepublicans
newsnews
Share on FacebookShare on Facebook
Share on TwitterShare on Twitter
Share via EmailShare via Email
Share on LinkedInShare on LinkedIn
Share on PinterestShare on Pinterest
Share on Google+Share on Google+
Share on WhatsAppShare on WhatsApp
Share on MessengerShare on Messenger
Reuse this contentReuse this content