JOHN MCCAIN/MEDIA/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A White House communications aide who made headlines in May for cracking a macabre joke about the health of Senator John McCain has left the White House. The aide, Kelly Sadler, made off-the-cuff comments about the Republican senator’s opposition to President Trump’s nominee for C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, saying that it did not matter because Mr. McCain was ‘dying anyway.’ Mr. McCain, a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, has a malignant brain tumor and has been in treatment for several months. The joke was shared with the news media, igniting a firestorm in which the president personally promised to pursue leakers. The White House addressed the departure in a brief statement on Tuesday [6-5-18] evening, saying that Ms. Sadler was ‘no longer employed within the executive office of the president.’ The move was first reported by CNN. Still, Ms. Sadler did not leave in light of her comments, according to two people familiar with the situation. Instead, they suggested that Ms. Sadler was pushed out over reports that she had told Mr. Trump that Mercedes Schlapp, the White House strategic communications director, had been the one leaking to the news media. “
-Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman, “Kelly Sadler, Aide Who Mocked McCain, Leaves White House,” The New York Times online, June 6, 2018