Nearly a month after joking about John McCain’s terminal illness during a meeting, Trump communications aide Kelly Sadler has left her job in the White House.
“Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President,” deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement first reported by CNN. It has not yet been clarified whether she quit the Trump administration completely, or was relocated to a different position with another agency.
In May, Sadler dismissed McCain’s opposition to the appointment of CIA director Gina Haspel, saying that “it doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway,” a reference to McCain’s brain cancer diagnosis. Her remarks were quickly leaked to multiple press outlets, sparking widespread condemnation.
The Trump administration refused to condemn the remarks, and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at one point even suggested that leaking the comment was worse than the comment itself. The Trump White House subsequently began an intensive effort to stem the problem of rampant leaks, details about which were, you guessed it, leaked.
Sadler, the New York Times reports, was not let go from her position because of her comments. Instead, she was essentially pushed out by White House strategic communications director Mercedes Schlapp, after Sadler accused Schlapp of being behind the leaks, according to White House sources cited by the Times.