The White House communications team has reportedly closed its regular morning meeting off to certain staffers in the hopes that doing so might prevent future leaks from occurring.
For the last several months, more than two dozen White House communications officials have gathered inside a West Wing conference room for a daily meeting at the beginning of the work day. The meetings can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the news cycle or the president’s agenda that day.
But those morning meetings will now include fewer staffers, the New York Times reported Thursday, in order to limit who’s exposed to certain information.
The change comes just one week after anonymous White House officials leaked details of an insensitive comment one of their colleagues had made about Arizona Sen. John McCain’s brain cancer diagnosis.
“He’s dying anyway,” Kelly Sadler, a communications aide, had said in a staff meeting when McCain’s opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel was brought up.
The White House has refused to confirm Sadler’s comment or issue an apology. Senior communications officials have instead complained about the “leaking problem” inside the White House, and hinted that changes were being made.
“I think smaller, tighter meetings are always a better idea,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News earlier Thursday, when asked what can be done to prevent unauthorized disclosures.
The White House declined to confirm whether any changes to the daily communications meeting had been made.
Conway also said in recent days that President Trump had expressed an interest in making changes to his staff following the Sadler leak.
“Somewhat, yes,” she told Fox News, when asked if the White House had already identified previous leakers.
