On the day following reports that a disgusting remark about Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) failing health was made during a meeting between communications staff by aide Kelly Sadler, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stood at the daily press briefing and refused to condemn the comment, instead saying that would not answer questions about “an internal meeting.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders berates her staff for the leak of Kelly Sadler's McCain comment https://t.co/pw5LNfkGr1 pic.twitter.com/SKyvzWSAeJ
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 12, 2018
She did not shrink, however, from chastising her team for “leaking” the story.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls White House mocking of dying Sen. John McCain a leak and refuses to comment on it. pic.twitter.com/Uxrn0uwfbj
— Rogelio Garcia Lawyer (@LawyerRogelio) May 11, 2018
While Sanders did say that Sadler’s comment that McCain’s opinion on Gina Haspel’s confirmation as CIA director didn’t matter because “he’s dying anyway” was “unacceptable,” she gave her team a tongue-lashing for telling the story to reporters. Instead of a day of praise for President Trump as he posed for pictures with detainees released from North Korea and bragged about the television ratings he would get, the administration was instead hit with a barrage of questions and calls for an apology over Sadler’s continued employment after such a heartless remark.
If @PressSec was more upset by the leak than the sick "joke" about McCain, she better check her values.https://t.co/8H5b2eVcBv
— VoteVets (@votevets) May 12, 2018
At the beginning of Trump’s presidency, leaks were blamed on “deep state” officials who were all surely “Obama holdovers” bent on undermining the new president. However, most of those holdovers have now left their positions and there are, to date, no deep state Obama operatives currently serving on the communications team of President Trump. The leaks, it seems, are coming from Trump’s own people. It seems inspiring loyalty is yet another shortcoming of the new president’s.
In case anyone is keeping track, there is a reason that ABC News is reporting that Sanders berated her team for the leaks, and that’s because someone leaked details of that meeting, as well.
Featured image via Getty/Mark Wilson
