White House staffer who mocked John McCain as ‘dying anyway’ loses job

Decision announced a little under a month after controversial comments were first revealed

A White House staffer who reportedly mocked Senator John McCain’s terminal illness has left her job.

“Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President,” deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement.

The Trump administration has been on the defensive since it was leaked that, during a conversation on rounding up enough votes to confirm Gina Haspel as CIA director, Ms Sadler said Mr McCain’s opposition did not matter because the Arizona Republican was “dying anyway”.

It has been a little under a month since the comment was first revealed. The White House initially declined to comment, saying it would not verify a leak, and has not issued a public apology.

After Mr Shah said last month Ms Haspel had called the McCain family to apologise, he declined to elaborate further on an “internal matter”.

“If you aren't able, in internal meetings, to speak your mind or convey thoughts or say anything that you feel without feeling like your colleagues will betray you, that creates a very difficult work environment”, Mr Shah said.

Among the more vocal critics of the remark was Mr McCain's daughter Meghan, who said she did not understand how Ms Sadler could “still have a job”

Mr McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam and ardent opponent of CIA-sponsored torture of suspects was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer last year.

He has been a persistent antagonist of the Trump administration, criticising its foreign policy and casting the decisive vote to derail an effort to repeal the healthcare law championed by Barack Obama.

Donald Trump has responded by signalling his disdain for Mr McCain, whom he mocked during the presidential campaign by saying “I like people that weren't captured”.