By Emily Shugerman, The Independent
Another staff shakeup may be coming to the White House in the wake of recent media leaks, presidential counsellor Kellyanne Conway has said.
Ms Conway spoke out after multiple outlets reported that a White House aide had made disparaging comments about ailing Senator John McCain
during an internal meeting. The comments drew outrage from Mr McCain’s
family and supporters, but the administration focused its outrage on the
staffers who relayed the comments to the press.
President Donald Trump for example, tweeted on Monday that White House leakers were “traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!”
Asked if she foresaw personnel changes at the White House over the leak, Ms Conway said: “I do, actually. Yes, I do.”
“There
are all kinds of leaks,” the presidential adviser told Fox News' Martha
MacCallum, adding that she had spoken with Mr Trump about the issue
earlier that day.
“Some
leaks exist to hurt, I guess, colleagues, some leaks exist because they
disagree with the policies that are being put forth, but none of them
are helpful," she said.
Ms
Conway said the leaks were a change from the early days of the White
House, when officials would not leak information so much as use the
media to “shiv each other”.
“That was going on quite a bit at the beginning of this administration and it’s less so now,” she said.
Multiple sources told The Hill
last week that communications aide Kelly Sadler had made mocking
comments about Mr McCain, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of
brain cancer last year. Responding to Mr McCain’s criticisms of Gina Haspel, the administration's pick to lead the CIA, Ms Sadler reportedly said: “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”
The
White House did not deny the comments, but also refused to apologise,
saying only that the issue was being handled internally.
The
comments drew criticism from Mr McCain's family, and from politicians
on the left and right. Both Republican Senator Lindsey Graham – a
longtime friend of Mr McCain – and Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders
lambasted the White House for failing to apologise for the remarks.
“It
is one thing in the White House for somebody to say something crude and
stupid and disrespectful about an American hero, it is another thing
for them not to apologise,” Mr Sanders told CNN.
White
House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has told reporters she
will not comment on the issue, but reportedly called a meeting last week
to berate White House staff over the deluge of leaks.
“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 difficult work environment,”
deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters on Monday. “I think
anybody who works anywhere can recognise that.“
New York Times
White House correspondent Maggie Haberman added her own thoughts on the
situation on Monday, tweeting: "Sometimes the person yelling the most
about leakers is doing the leaking,”
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