(CNN) The White House on Friday refused either to acknowledge or disown a purported barb about Sen. John McCain's health by a communications staffer.

Instead, press secretary Sarah Sanders suggested questions about the incident were meant to sow discord among President Donald Trump's aides.

"I'm not going to get into a back and forth because people want to create issues of a leaked meeting," Sanders said.

Kelly Sadler, a special assistant who handles surrogate communications, told other staffers during a meeting Thursday that McCain's opposition to Trump's CIA director nominee, Gina Haspel, does not matter because "he's dying anyway," a White House official told CNN.

The official said Sadler meant it as a joke, "but it fell flat."

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