WH Staffer Who Mocked McCain’’s Illness Loses Job
Local Editor
A White House staffer who reportedly mocked Senator John McCain's terminal illness has left her job.
"Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President," deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement.
The Trump administration has been on the defensive since it was leaked that, during a conversation on rounding up enough votes to confirm Gina Haspel as CIA director, Sadler said McCain's opposition did not matter because the Arizona Republican was "dying anyway".
It has been a little under a month since the comment was first revealed. The White House initially declined to comment, saying it would not verify a leak, and has not issued a public apology.
After Shah said last month Haspel had called the McCain family to apologize, he declined to elaborate further on an "internal matter".
"If you aren't able, in internal meetings, to speak your mind or convey thoughts or say anything that you feel without feeling like your colleagues will betray you, that creates a very difficult work environment", Shah said.
Among the more vocal critics of the remark was McCain's daughter Meghan, who said she did not understand how Sadler could "still have a job."
McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer last year.
He has been a persistent antagonist of the Trump administration, criticizing its foreign policy and casting the decisive vote to derail an effort to repeal the healthcare law championed by Barack Obama.
Donald Trump has responded by signaling his disdain for McCain, whom he mocked during the presidential campaign by saying "I like people that weren't captured".
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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