The White House’s John McCain death joke controversy, explained

A White House aide’s joke that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is fighting brain cancer, “is dying anyway” kicked up a firestorm last month. The Trump administration stood by the communications staffer, Kelly Sadler, and instead focused on the leak of the comment more than its substance. Now Sadler’s out — not because of the comment but apparently because of the leaking situation. She was reportedly forced out because she told the president that Mercedes Schlapp, the White House strategic communications director, had been the one leaking to the media.

The saga began on May 10 when the Hill reported that Sadler, in an internal meeting, made derisive comments about the Arizona lawmaker after he urged the Senate to reject Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee for CIA director.

McCain said in a statement that her role in overseeing torture by Americans is “disturbing” and that her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality is “disqualifying.” Haspel oversaw the torture of a terrorism suspect in a secret prison in Thailand in 2002 and was involved in the destruction of videotapes of the interrogations.

Of McCain’s opposition to Haspel, Sadler reportedly said, “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.” The Associated Press later confirmed the comments.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refused to condemn the remark and said she wouldn’t comment on an internal staff meeting. “I’m not going to validate a leak out of an internal staff meeting one way or another,” she said. She said she didn’t want to “get into a back-and-forth” when asked why she wouldn’t just apologize.

Sen. McCain’s family was obviously bothered by Sadler’s comments and the White House’s apparent indifference to them. “May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren,” his wife, Cindy McCain, wrote to Sadler on Twitter.

His daughter, Meghan McCain, said on ABC’s The View that she didn’t want anyone to “feel bad for me or my family” but that she believes Sadler should be fired. “I don’t understand what kind of environment you’re working in when that job would be acceptable and then you can come to work the next day and still have a job,” she said.

CBS reported that Sadler reached out to McCain to apologize for the comment. She reportedly was going to make a public apology but never did.

Former Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement decrying Sadler’s remarks. “People have wondered when decency would hit rock bottom with this administration,” he said. He said McCain is a “genuine hero” who deserves “so much better.”

Former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney jumped to McCain’s defense on Twitter as well.

Kelly Sadler got to keep her job — but had to go because of her leaking accusations

The White House’s focus in dealing with the Sadler situation was not on the comment about McCain but instead on the fact that it leaked. And the leaks didn’t end with the first one.

Axios’s Jonathan Swan reported about the backlash in the Trump administration over public reports of Sadler’s remarks. “I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too. And that’s just disgusting,” Sanders reportedly said during a communications team meeting days after the initial news broke about the remark.

According to Swan, Sanders said Sadler’s comment was inappropriate but shouldn’t have been told to the press. She called the leak “selfish.” ABC News first reported on the communications meeting, where Sanders called the comment “unacceptable” but was apparently more upset about the leak.

Senior White House communications adviser Mercedes Schlapp also reportedly expressed her support for Sadler in the meeting, saying, “I stand with Kelly Sadler.”

But whatever affinity there was between Schlapp and Sadler must have dissipated. Swan reported late last month that Sadler accused Schlapp of leaking to the media in front of President Trump.

Trump reportedly convened a meeting in the Oval Office after the first leak, which Sadler, Schlapp, deputy press secretary Raj Shah, and Chief of Staff John Kelly all attended. He told Sadler he wouldn’t fire her over her comment and later added he’s not a big fan of McCain. But he asked who the leakers were, and Sadler said she thought one of the worst was Schlapp.

The Times reported on Tuesday that Sadler was pushed out over that exchange. But she might not be gone for good: Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, told CNN on Wednesday that Sadler “has been told there are administration jobs that fit with her skill set and her experience.”

In other words, they’re still not mad about the McCain thing.

President Trump and Sen. McCain have a fraught relationship

Trump on the campaign trail in 2015 famously said he didn’t believe McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was a war hero. “He was a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people who weren’t captured.” And as Vox’s Jane Coaston explained recently, the Trump right has a fierce animus toward the senator.

McCain voted against the Republican Party’s Obamacare repeal efforts in July, joining Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) in sinking the bill with a thumbs-down. People close to McCain have reportedly told the White House that he does not want President Trump at his funeral and would prefer Vice President Mike Pence come instead. McCain, 81, is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer and is in Arizona undergoing treatment.

Sanders was asked by reporters after the Sadler incident if a tone set by the president had perhaps contributed to Sadler’s comfort in making her joke about McCain “dying anyway.” She responded that it is “certainly not” the case. “We have a respect for all Americans, and that is what we try to put forward in everything we do, but in word and in action, focusing on doing things that help every American in this country every single day,” she said.

Around the same time of the Sadler joke leak, first lady Melania Trump launched her official platform, “Be Best,” an effort to, in part, combat online bullying and promote kindness and civil discourse.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), McCain’s closest friend in the Senate, said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan that he was not happy with the White House’s response to Sadler’s comments and thinks it’s a “pretty disgusting” thing to say.

“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,” he said. “And John McCain can be criticized 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 whether the president should apologize, Graham responded, “I’ll leave that up to him, but if something happened like that in my office — somebody in my office said such a, such a thing about somebody, I would apologize on behalf of the office.”

Trump has not apologized.