Sen. Lindsey Graham urged the White House on Saturday to declare a joke by a communications staffer about Sen. John McCain dying as out of bounds and suggested President Donald Trump consider getting involved.
"If it was a joke, it was a terrible joke. I just wish somebody from the White House would tell the country that was inappropriate, that’s not who we are in the Trump administration," Graham (R-S.C.) told "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan in an interview set to air Sunday.
Graham said his longtime friend McCain (R-Ariz.) is not above criticisms of his past votes, but added that the former Vietnam prisoner of war is an "American hero." As to whether Trump should apologize on behalf of the White House, Graham said that’s up to the president.
"I’ll leave that up to him, but if something happened like that in my office – somebody in my office said such a, such a thing about somebody, I would apologize on behalf of the office," Graham said.
Then presidential candidate Trump said in July 2015 that McCain was not a war hero, adding "I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain was further scorned by the president after casting the decisive vote when the Senate rejected a White House-backed push to dismantle Obamacare in July 2017.
The Hill reported Thursday that White House communications aide Kelly Sadler dismissed McCain’s opposition to Gina Haspel, Trump’s pick to become the next CIA director, during a private meeting with a crude joke about the status of his health.
A number of GOP lawmakers have condemned Sadler’s remarks including McCain’s fellow Arizona senator, Jeff Flake, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones and Pennsylvania Rep. Ryan Costello, who called on the White House to fire the aide. Numerous Democrats including former Vice President Joe Biden have also spoken out.
McCain is opposed to Haspel’s nomination on the grounds of Haspel’s history with the agency’s use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which McCain and others have labeled as torture.
The six-term senator was diagnosed with cancer in July and is receiving treatment and spending time with friends and family in Arizona.
On Saturday, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney stressed Sadler’s comment was a "joke," adding the leaking of the remarks was intended to hurt the aide’s status.
“This was a private meeting inside the White House," Mulvaney said on Fox News. "It was a joke. It was a badly considered joke, an awful joke that she said fell flat."
The original story can be found here.
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