Mercedes Schlapp, the White House strategic communications director, stood by aide Kelly Sadler after she made a controversial joke about Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is battling brain cancer.
Schlapp, a potential candidate for communications director, said during a closed-door meeting Friday that she supports Sadler, according to a report from Axios.
“You can put this on the record … I stand with Kelly Sadler,” she reportedly said.
Schlapp was trying to get across the point that when a staff member is targeted by a leak from other members of the staff, then the communications team should support the staffer subjected to the leak, a source told Axios.
During a Thursday meeting of the communications team, Sadler said about McCain’s decision to oppose CIA nominee Gina Haspel that “it doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”
The leaked comment drew widespread condemnation. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to say during the White House briefing Friday if Sadler would be fired for the remark.
Sanders also said during the closed-door meeting on Friday that Sadler’s comment was inappropriate but that didn’t justify the leak, Axios reported, citing a staffer in the room.
