Trump condemns White House 'leakers' as traitors, cowards after furor over McCain 'joke'

President Donald Trump blasted White House staff who leak information to the media as "traitors and cowards" as the political fallout over an aide's remark about U.S. Sen. John McCain's mortality stretched into a fifth day.

Trump blasted the leakers on Twitter from the Oval Office as he prepared to leave the White House to see his wife, first lady Melania Trump, in the hospital. The two-sentence message was the first time Trump has publicly acknowledged the conduct of communications staffer Kelly Sadler.

Sadler said at an internal meeting Thursday that McCain's opposition to Trump's CIA nominee was unimportant because "he's dying anyway."

MORE: Here's who's defending McCain after aide's 'dying' remark — and who isn't

McCain, a six-term Republican senator from Arizona, former prisoner of war and 2008 Republican presidential nominee, has a deadly form of brain cancer and is fighting for his life. Once the remark became public through the media, it triggered an avalanche of condemnation of the Trump White House's handling of the comment.

"The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible," Trump tweeted on Monday. "With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!"

The White House has not apologized for the crass comment, which was reportedly intended to be a joke.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said Monday that Sadler called McCain's daughter to apologize.

Meghan McCain reportedly asked Sadler to issue a public apology. Sadler has not done so and Shah said such an apology will not be given, a response that generated a new round of criticism of the White House's handling of the controversy.

Shah described Sadler's conduct to reporters as an internal matter that "is going to be dealt with and has been dealt with internally."

He did not elaborate.

Meghan McCain, a political commentator and co-host of ABC's "The View," said on the show Monday that Sadler should have expected her colleagues to go public about the her tasteless remark.

In a matter-of-fact rebuke, she noted the White House's moral indifference about Sadler's remarks.

"People are going to answer for their own conscience," she said. "... When you go on TV and you say things like this, your belief in right and wrong, people espouse a lot about God and living with values.

"And when you say things like that, it's what you're going to have to live with at this point," she said.

She noted that May is Brain Cancer Awareness month.

If anything good could come of the difficult time her family is having, the younger McCain said, it is raising awareness about the importance of brain cancer research and helping children living with the illness.

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