‘He’s dying anyway’: backlash builds after White House refuses to apologise for remarks about John McCain
CNN quoted a White House official as saying the comment was meant as a joke but that it flopped
Family and congressional colleagues pushed back on Friday against attacks on cancer-stricken John McCain, including one by a White House aide who reportedly said the senator’s opposition to a presidential nominee did not matter because “he’s dying anyway”.
Amid rising bipartisan fury, the White House declined to apologise, or to acknowledge that the comments attributed by US media to White House communications aide Kelly Sadler were even made.
Sadler’s apparent remark came after McCain announced his opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel over her role in Bush-era enhanced interrogation techniques.
CNN quoted a White House official as saying Sadler, speaking on Thursday at a staff meeting, meant the comment as a joke but that it flopped.
Another extraordinary attack against McCain by a fellow military veteran and commentator also stunned much of Washington, when retired US Air Force lieutenant general Thomas McInerney said he knows torture works because it made McCain spill sensitive information to his captors during his years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
The fact is, with John McCain, [torture] worked on John. That’s why they call him Songbird John
“The fact is, with John McCain, it worked on John. That’s why they call him Songbird John,” McInerney said on Thursday on Fox Business Network.