John McCain's wife hits back at White House official over joke about 'dying' senator
The wife of John McCain has rebuked a White House official who reportedly made what some saw as an insensitive comment about ailing the Arizona Senator.
Kelly Sadler was discussing McCain’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, when she allegedly claimed, "It doesn’t matter" because "he’s dying anyway."
That’s according to a person in the room who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door staff meeting.
The White House did not dispute the remark, but said in a statement, "we respect Senator McCain’s service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time."
The Hill newspaper first reported the comment.
Sadler is a special assistant to the president. She did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday evening.
McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, responded with a tweet tagged to Sadler: "May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren."
@kellysadler45 May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren.
— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) May 10, 2018
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close friend of John McCain, was quoted by CNN as saying: "Ms. Sadler, may I remind you that John McCain has a lot of friends in the United States Senate on both sides of the aisle. Nobody is laughing in the Senate."
Sadler called the senator's daughter Meghan McCain on Thursday to apologise for the remark, a source close to the situation told CNN.
The 81-year-old senator was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
He left Washington in December and underwent surgery last month for an infection.
