John McCain’s daughter responded after White House official Kelly Sadler made remarks about the ailing Arizona senator in a meeting

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

John McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, has hit back at the White House official who is said to have dismissed her father’s views by saying “he’s dying anyway”.

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Appearing on ABC’s The View, McCain said she did not understand why the official, Kelly Sadler, still had a job.

“We’re all dying,” she said, on the show she co-hosts. “… It is not how you die. It is how you live.”

She added: “I don’t understand what kind of environment you’re working in when that would be acceptable and then you could come to work the next day and still have a job.”

It was reported that Sadler made the remarks about the 81-year-old Arizona senator, who has brain cancer, in a staff discussion of his opposition to Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel. A person in the room spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door 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.

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McCain’s wife came to his defense on Twitter, responding with a tweet tagged to Sadler: “May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren.”

Sadler is a special assistant to the president. She did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday evening.

On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refused to comment, saying she was “not going to comment on an internal staff meeting” and framing her refusal to do so as a refusal “to validate a leak”.

Asked about how the White House felt about McCain, she said: “We have a respect for all Americans and that is what we try to put forward in everything we do both in word and in action.”

Sanders did make clear Sadler was still employed at the White House.

McCain was diagnosed last July with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. He left Washington in December and had surgery last month for an infection.