John McCain’s Family Responds After White House Aide Kelly Sadler Says Of Senator: ‘He’s Dying Anyway’

John McCain’s wife and family are unsurprisingly upset after a White House press aide made an insensitive comment about the Republican senator, who is in poor health.

White House Press Aide Mocks John McCain

During a meeting among White House communications employees, Kelly Sadler said of McCain, “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.” She was referring to McCain’s opinion on Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA. McCain, a prisoner of war who was tortured during the Vietnam War, said earlier this week that he opposed Haspel because of her history of running torture programs in Thailand and in other countries during the earl years of the Iraq War.

McCain — who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in July 2017 and had surgery on his eye— has been resting at home in Arizona. His book The Restless Wave is set to be released on May 22 and includes several sharp criticisms of Trump and his administration. McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee for president, even reportedly states in the book that he doesn’t want Trump to attend his funeral. 

In a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, Haspel failed to explicitly denounce the CIA’s past use of torture, which led to McCain to urge Senators to reject her as the agency’s next director.

McCain’s wife Cindy McCain called out Sadler on Twitter on Thursday night:

@kellysadler45 May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren.

— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) May 10, 2018

Cindy McCain’s criticisms did not stop there, however. She also slammed Fox Business and host Charles Payne for inviting retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney as a guest on the network.

McInerney claimed that torture “worked on John” when he was a prisoner in Vietnam and implied that the Senator eventually divulged U.S. government secrets to his captors during his time in the war.

“Please choose your guest more wisely,” Cindy implored the network in another tweet.

Payne quickly apologized, saying: “Yes, I will and hope you accept my apology.”

McCain’s daughter Meghan responded to both Sadler’s and McInerney’s comments Friday on The View, where she serves as co-host.

Meghan McCain said she was surprised Sadler wasn’t fired for her remarks.

“Don’t feel bad for me or my family.” @MeghanMcCain responds White House aide Kelly Sadler who mocked Sen. John McCain as “dying anyway”: “There’s so much more love and prayer and amazing energy being generated towards us … it is not how you die, it is how you live.” pic.twitter.com/w4ZLe24Vx1

— The View (@TheView) May 11, 2018

Trump has disrespected McCain several times, including in 2015 just weeks after announcing his bid for president.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said of McCain. “He’s only a hero because he was captured. I don’t like people who get captured.”