White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah has confirmed that Sadler has left her job “within the Executive Office of the President,” but it remains unclear whether her departure was related to her imprudent remark on McCain’s terminal illness.
White House confirms that aide Kelly Sadler, who said "he's dying anyway" of Sen John McCain R-AZ, is out of a job pic.twitter.com/ETHFfMqxxr
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) 5 июня 2018 г.
Some media reports suggest that Sadler was pushed out of her position because she had accused White House Strategic Communications Director Mercedes Schlapp of being the one who leaked her comments to the media.
Trump aide who decried McCain as "dying anyway" is out. But it's not due to what she said. It's because she accused her boss of leaking it in days of fights over the leak. Trump did not want apology from the White House — nor to fire her for saying it.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) 5 июня 2018 г.
https://t.co/9kbN5OJZou
Two unnamed sources told the Daily Beast that Sadler’s accusations made Schlapp furious, and shortly after a private staff meeting, she referred to her as a “b*tch.” Schlapp, however, denied the claims, saying that she has never used “that word to describe anyone on the White House staff.”
Two sources tell The Daily Beast that, following the now-infamous Trump comms team meeting in the Oval Office about leaks, Mercedes Schlapp referred to Kelly Sadler as "a bitch" when describing the meeting to others. https://t.co/rs0HmPS2SJ
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) 30 мая 2018 г.
As the scandal has been in the limelight for nearly a month now, many social media users were relieved to learn that Sadler finally left her job:
It’s about time. She should have been fired immediately after she said it. I hate that she tried to turn this reprehensible act into a leak scandal. She should never get work again. Senator McCain is a better man and deserves so much more respect.
— Danielle Wallace (@StarTrekFan2015) 6 июня 2018 г.
Kelly Sadler (on John McCain): It doesn't matter. He's dying anyway.
— JRehling (@JRehling) 5 июня 2018 г.
It doesn't matter what you think, Kelly. You're fired anyway.
— Alicia C. (@aliciainedmonds) 6 июня 2018 г.
— Sarah Walsh (@Serahwersh) 6 июня 2018 г.
Some didn’t understand what Raj Shah meant by saying that Sadler was “no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President”:
“Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President”
— Like, Enormously Consensual (@Snowhawk04) 6 июня 2018 г.
So, did they just move her to the office of the vice president?
Others went with the version that while she was dismissed, it wasn’t for the insensitive barb:
She got fired for accusing her boss, Mercedes Schlapp, of being a leaker.
— Carson Stanwood (@carsonstanwood) 5 июня 2018 г.
Not for the McCain remark.
Rumor has it @kellysadler45 was fired for accusing her boss @mercedesschlapp for being the wh leaker. ms evidently called her the b-word and axed her. So accusing is more offensive than making vile statements. Sounds about right for @realDonaldTrump dumpster fire.
— DREW (@ALLCAPSTWEETX) 6 июня 2018 г.
Commenting on Sadler leaving her job, ex-White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN that “someone had it out for” her.
“Someone had it out for Kelly Sadler. Because that was a sorry joke. It’s an unforgivable statement – I’m not here suggesting the statement was OK – but what I am suggesting as someone that’s run a pretty decent corporation, that when you’re sitting inside the inner sanctum and somebody says something like that, to run outside the sanctum and rat on that person – I think that’s a terrible thing to do to the person,” he said.
Her comments came as McCain, who was diagnosed with late-stage brain cancer last year and lived through years of captivity during the Vietnam War, refused to vote for Haspel, emphasizing that she is not fit to lead the Central Intelligence Agency because of her “disturbing role on overseeing the use of torture by Americans.”
READ MORE: McCain's Daughter on WH Aide's Remark: 'It's Not How You Die, It's How You Live'
Immediately after the incident, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders blasted the staff, with some alleging that she was more upset with the leak than the remark itself.
