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White House official mocked 'dying' McCain at internal meeting

BY JONATHAN EASLEY AND JORDAN FABIAN - 05/10/18 05:42 PM EDT

A White House official mocked Sen. John McCain’s brain cancer diagnosis at an internal meeting on Thursday, a day after the Arizona Republican announced his opposition to President Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel.

Special assistant Kelly Sadler made the derisive comments during a closed-door White House meeting of about two-dozen communications staffers on Thursday morning.

“It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway,” Sadler said, according to a source familiar with the remarks at the meeting.

The White House did not deny the account of Sadler’s remarks, which came amid a discussion of Haspel’s nomination and McCain’s opposition to it.

“We respect Senator McCain’s service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time,” the White House said in a statement to The Hill.

Sadler did not respond to a request for comment and the White House did not make her available to The Hill.

The Thursday morning meeting was led by deputy press secretary Raj Shah. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not present. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway showed up to the meeting after the remark was made, according to the first source.

A source who heard Sadler’s remarks could not confirm her exact wording, but agreed that Sadler made comments along the lines described by the first source.

Both sources said they believed the comment was intended as a joke, but that it did not go over well with others at the meeting.

There was “discomfort” in the room after Sadler’s comment and the conversation continued without addressing it, according to the second source.

Sadler is a former opinion editor for The Washington Times. At the White House, she focuses on illegal immigration, often sending out press releases to highlight stories about the issue to reporters.

The White House is engaged in a high-stakes nomination fight for Haspel, who faces opposition from many senators for her association with harsh interrogation techniques as a CIA agent after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, urged his Senate colleagues to oppose Haspel’s nomination, saying that “her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is disqualifying.”

The president has long had a fraught relationship with McCain, who has been a sharp and unrelenting critic of Trump and his administration.

In a speech shortly after announcing his presidential bid in 2015, Trump responded to criticism from McCain by saying “he’s not a war hero” because he was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese.

“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at the time.

McCain’s office declined to comment on Sadler’s remark.

The New York Times reported last week that McCain’s allies informed the White House that they would like Vice President Pence to attend McCain’s funeral, but not Trump. Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush are expected to give eulogies at the memorial.

McCain has a new book coming out, “The Restless Wave,” and he has remained engaged as he recovers at home in Phoenix.

In the book, McCain rips Trump for his rhetoric on immigrants and refugees; alleges that the president’s attacks on the press are being mimicked by dictators abroad; and says he “doesn’t know what to make of President Trump’s convictions.”

McCain also confirmed that he passed along the infamous “Steele dossier” to the FBI, which was later presented as evidence to a secret spy court to justify eavesdropping on Trump campaign officials.

“I did what any American who cares about our nation’s security should have done,” McCain writes.

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, senators grilled Haspel over the use of controversial interrogation techniques. Haspel told senators that torture “does not work” and that she would defy orders to restart the programs. But she dodged questions about whether she believed it to be “immoral.”

Haspel needs support from 50 senators for confirmation and Republicans have only a slim 51-49 majority in the upper chamber. McCain and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have already announced their opposition, but Haspel has picked up support from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is running for reelection this year in a state Trump carried by 42 points in 2016.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrati...nternal-meeting


Nobody hugely important, but disgusting nevertheless.

conservatives love patriots...but only the ones who weren't captured.

Remember when Trump said his New York prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military"?

smh, too bad he didn't use all that cool training he got in Nam.

Imagine thinking that insecure dork is some kind of tough man's man.

With bone spurs on one of his feet, if he could only remember which one.

his hands looks rather small in that photo.

He once had a hissy fit and stomped off the slopes because his wife was a better skier than him.



But he was trained better, militarily, and doesn't like people who got captured.

Can you imagine the fits he is throwing behind the scenes in the White House! lol

There is no excuse for saying something like that about any other human being... (who isn't some kind of horrible criminal or something)...

No excuse at all... the fact that she even thought it speaks to her own lack of character... the fact that she thought it was ok to say it, speaks to what she believes is acceptable in that company...

Hey Kelly karma is a bitch.

There's no need to imagine them. His temper tantrums are posted daily on Twitter.

They fire her for being stupid and they just caught two leakers in the fold who leaked a private meeting to the Press.

That was a brutal takedown and so true

Doesn't him look so cute in his little play army suit ? This is the tough guy that his followers want him to be .

Really classless if true.

It's true. It's all over the place and the white house does not deny it.

Just watched Real Time and Bill Maher took Trump and Company down hard in the New Rules segment wrap up. It's hysterical and scary at the same time.

Has the aid been fired yet

If anyone's ever noticed, they bristle and get fussy the most when you point out what a dweeb the guy is.

They have to convince themselves that Trump is some kind of tough guy for their illusions to work.

No, the White House is now calling her a victim.

Hadn't hear that... Geez

Here is a little something Jonathan Swan of Axios put together about this cluster of an administration.

https://www.axios.com/trump-white-house-...756b542cd0.html







Donald Trump at the White House, which has a problem with leakers leaking about leaks.




President Trump at the White House. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images



This White House leaks like there’s no tomorrow.

The big picture: The leaks come in all shapes and sizes: small leaks, real-time leaks, weaponized leaks, historical leaks. Sensitive Oval Office conversations have leaked, and so have talks in cabinet meetings and the Situation Room. You name it, they leak it.



•My colleague Mike Allen, who has spent nearly 20 years covering the White House, says we learn more about what's going on inside the Trump White House in a week than we did in a year of the George W. Bush presidency.
•This White House leaks so much that meetings called to bemoan leaks begin with acknowledgement the bemoaning will be leaked, which is promptly leaked...by several leakers in a smallish room.

Why does this White House leak like it’s going out of style? I reached out to some of the Trump administration’s most prolific leakers — people who have been wonderful sources to me (and, I assume, plenty of other reporters) — to get them to explain the draw.
•"To be honest, it probably falls into a couple of categories,” one current White House official tells me. "The first is personal vendettas. And two is to make sure there's an accurate record of what's really going on in the White House."
•"To cover my tracks, I usually pay attention to other staffers' idioms and use that in my background quotes. That throws the scent off me," the current White House official added.
•"The most common substantive leaks are the result of someone losing an internal policy debate," a current senior administration official told me. "By leaking the decision, the loser gets one last chance to kill it with blowback from the public, Congress or even the President."
•"Otherwise," the official added, "you have to realize that working here is kind of like being in a never-ending 'Mexican Standoff.' Everyone has guns (leaks) pointed at each other and it's only a matter of time before someone shoots. There's rarely a peaceful conclusion so you might as well shoot first."

A former senior White House official who turned leaking into an art form made a slightly more nuanced defense of the practice. "Leaking is information warfare; it's strategic and tactical — strategic to drive narrative, tactical to settle scores,” the source said.
•Another former administration official said grudges have a lot to do with it. "Any time I leaked, it was out of frustration with incompetent or tone-deaf leadership,” the former official said.
•“Bad managers almost always breed an unhappy workplace, which ultimately results in pervasive leaking," the former official added. "And there has been plenty of all those things inside this White House. Some people use leaking to settle personal scores, or even worse to attack the President, but for me it was always to make a point about something that I felt was being unjustly ignored by others."

Be smart: To any would-be leakers who are considering the practice, I'm also told leaking is pretty fun. Give me a call if you'd like to try it out.

**FAKE NOOZ**

E'rbody knows it's all those danged Obama-era holdouts.

As the swamp continues to fill, it is bound to leak a lot. Even the Dutch would drown in this muck.

Well good for Mr Swan.

I have my own thoughts on this.

Washington DC is a basket case of people cutting each others throats to get ahead or get heard. Always has been.

There are deals cut out of sight and words spoken that are not believed by the people saying them.

There is and has always been treachery.

A Politician runs for election and wins, comes to Washington and is told to sit down and shut up. You will do this and support that or your ideas will never see the light of day.

I have been aware of Washington's doings for many decades and nothing has changed except it gets worse and becomes more of a bureaucracy every year.

It stopped being by, for and of the people somewhere about 1777.

Now it is Trumps turn to ride that dog and pony show.

The Gettysburg Address delivered by Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863 included:



And today 40 says that ended over 85 years before it was even said:



And that concludes this lesson in revisionist history from the party of alternative facts.

John Wycliffe used that phrase in an introduction to his Bible in the 1300s.. Lincoln got it from him.

I've been mocking mccain for years as he has become more and more extreme and crazy. He has no problems mocking the white house so who cares if they mock him back. Just a bunch of whining from all sides to me.

Mocking a person for their political beliefs is one thing.. mocking them because they are dying from brain cancer is something completely different.

Yes I know. 40 used it as it applies to the US. That would be from the Gettysburg Address.

I disagree a lot with McCain politically, and personally. However the fact is the man is dying, and although I disagree with him, the man is dying from a severe illness - respect should be shown in that regard. Even if not for McCain himself, then at least for his grieving family whom I would bet love him unconditionally and deserve this time to not have to listen to crap like what was said, and the media crap show about it after day in and day out.

Heck, even the Trojans would give break to the royal family in the middle of war if a family member would have died. They would stop all battle and allow proper ceremony and grieving, to pick up battle afterwards.

You know that was from John Wycliffe in the 1300s? Wow, that's impressive. I had to Google it.

I saw it when I was looking up the date for the Gettysburg Address... Google is our friend. But when you posted it, I had already read it.

Wycliffe wrote the original verse referring to the Bible. I think FUBU apparel ("for us, by us,") might even be a play on these words.

Going to combine a couple posts here.


Yes, yes it is.


Yes he did, he wrote that the Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, for the people.. interesting thought in its own right.

I was recently helping my daughter with a history paper and was reading how John Locke influenced Thomas Jefferson (also Montesquieu and Voltaire).. (I remember the names from school but I don't think I fully grasped what they were saying at the time, it was neat to read it again as an adult) Locke pretty much adapted this concept of government by the people and for the people to modern government...

Yep. Locke took a lot of Hobbes' ideas and turned them into the framework of modern government. Voltaire was also very interesting as a man. Not only was he arrested multiple times for fighting the Aristocrats, he made his wealth by exploiting the national lottery of France with a few other people.

I pray McCain beats this illness but from what I have seen the odds are not in his favor. Sad.

Personally, I don't think McCain will survive the next election as he has been outed as one of our worst RINO's.

As far as the joke, insult, disrespect shown by the official, I don't think she needs to be fired afterall.
Do what you want Mr.President as the Left and their twisted Media are going to cry and gripe no matter what you do.
If she is valuable to you, keep her. If not, fire her. The Media is just going to move on to their next TDS gripe either way.

However, I think President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief Donald Trump should fire the two leakers immediately!

On a side note, Melania Trump had surgery on her kidney and liberals couldn't wait to attack.

https://thepoliticalinsider.com/melania-trump-surgery-liberals/