The White House has a John McCain problem. The senator has come out in opposition to Donald Trump's nominee to run the CIA, Gina Haspell, who needs congressional approval to be named director. Haspell has a fraught at best relationship with torture, overseeing sites where some detainees were waterboarded more than 80 times. And for all his other flaws, McCain has been quick to oppose people, like Trump, who enthusiastically and thoughtlessly endorse torture.

Late Thursday, according to The Hill, at a meeting of about two dozen White House communications staffers, McCain's opposition came up. "It doesn’t matter," said special assistant Kelly Sadler, "he’s dying anyway.”

The backlash was prompt, because while Trump may be running the White House, there's still apparently an expectation that the people working for him not act like full-on ghouls. Sadler reportedly apologized to McCain's daughter, and the White House issued the following statement:

“We respect Senator McCain’s service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time.”

Inside the White House, though, things were a little less respectful. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was reportedly furious that Sadler's comment leaked to the press, and chastised the communications teams in a meeting. “I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too. And that’s just disgusting,” she said, according to one of five sources at the meeting who promptly spoke to Jonathan Swan of Axios.

According to those multiple people, Sanders insisted that Sadler's remark was inappropriate. On top of that it, it came out on what should have been the rare good day for the White House, undercutting much needed good press from the release of three American hostages in North Korea. One source from the meeting defended Sanders to Swan, saying, "No one is condoning the remark," and adding, "the message to the staff is that leaking it to the press is not how you handle it." That's an odd claim to make considering that in the same meeting White House strategic communications director Mercedes Schlapp said, "You can put this on the record... I stand with Kelly Sadler."

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Sanders went on to call the leak "selfish," but that's a matter of perspective. For anyone who isn't a shill for an inept and corrupt administration, leaking is pretty patriotic.

Video: White House Remains Silent on McCain Comment