WASHINGTON -- The White House on Monday said the aide who dismissed Sen. John McCain's opposition to President Donald Trump's CIA nominee by saying "he's dying anyway" has been "dealt with internally." But spokesman Raj Shah refused to say how.
Pressed repeatedly on the issue at a briefing, Shah said communications aide Kelly Sadler apologized privately to the McCain family and still remains in her position following her comment during a closed-door meeting last week.
But Shah, who led the meeting in which Sadler made the comment, declined to say whether any disciplinary steps had been taken. He said he could not discuss how the situation was "addressed internally" because then it would no longer be internal.
The 81-year-old McCain was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He left Washington in December and few expect him to return.
Sadler called the Arizona Republican's daughter Meghan McCain, a co-host of ABC's "The View," to apologize last week. Meghan McCain told ABC News that, during their conversation, she'd asked Sadler to apologize publicly and that Sadler had agreed.
"I have not spoken to her since and I assume that it will never come," Meghan McCain told ABC.
White House officials have condemned the leak of the private conversation, and some have expressed their support for Sadler.
