White House special assistant Kelly Sadler reportedly no longer works in the administration, according to CNN, after saying last month that the terminally ill Senator John McCain’s opposition to CIA director Gina Haspel “doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”
The White House and Donald Trump refused to publicly condemn Sadler’s comments after the Hill reported them back on May 10. (“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 at the time.)
Instead, the White House chose to get insanely mad at the leak of Sadler’s comments. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to comment on it in a press conference because to do so would “validate a leak,” she claimed. Privately, however, she reportedly lit into a room full of communications staffers and told them, “I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too. And that’s just disgusting.” Hilariously, five people told Axios about the meeting afterwards.
As for Sadler, Axios reported late last month that she reportedly pinned the leak on her boss, White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp, in front of Trump during a meeting at the Oval Office. Schlapp denied that, and the Daily Beast reported last week that Schlapp called Sadler a “bitch” multiple times following that meeting, although Schlapp vehemently denied ever saying that about another White House staffer.
Politico reports that Trump has “ordered a wide-ranging housecleaning” of the White House press office, and that more reassignments and firing are expected in the coming days, although it wasn’t immediately clear if Sadler was fired or left of her own volition.
We reached out to the White House for confirmation, and will update with any response we receive.
Update, 7:43 p.m.: White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah confirmed Sadler’s departure to the Washington Post. According to the Post, Sadler is gone not because of the McCain comment, but because of her now-public feud with Schlapp.