John McCain's wife Cindy McCain slams White House official who said Arizona senator was 'dying anyway'
Republican Arizona Senator John McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, on Friday slammed a White House official who mocked her husband's health status during a meeting about the CIA director nominee Gina Haspel on Thursday.
White House aide, Kelly Sadler, reported responded to the Arizona senator's opposition to Haspel's nomination to the top position in the Trump administration with: "He's dying anyway."
McCain, in mid-2017, announced that he was battling an aggressive form of brain cancer and the senator is reportedly currently "ailing" from a surgery.
Sadler's comment drew rebuke from many and a source told CNN's Jim Acosta that Sadler's "joke... fell flat" in the meeting, according to reports.
Haspel's nomination for the top CIA position has garnered controversy as Democrats and Republicans alike have raised concerns about her involvement in a now-defunct torture program run by the agency. Several human rights advocates have objected to her nomination, citing the spy agency's second-in-command's career.
Haspel, who joined the CIA as an intelligence officer in 1985, and later become the deputy director at the intelligence agency reportedly operated "black site" prisons previously and allegedly drafted orders to destroy evidence that would reveal her participation in the torture, according to reports.
A black site, in military terminology, is a location where highly-classified and unacknowledged military or defense projects take place. These sites are also reportedly used to detain alleged unlawful enemy combatants and act as secret prisons. Former President George W Bush, in his speech in September 2006, had acknowledged the existence of such secret prisons operated by the CIA.
McCain, who was reportedly tortured as a prisoner during the Vietnam War, has staunchly opposed Haspel's nomination.
Shortly after the reports of Sadler's comments on McCain, the senator's wife took to Twitter and directly addressed Sadler, saying: "May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren."
Cindy McCain reportedly also got back at a guest on Fox Business who took the Arizona senator's example and praised torture technique as an interrogation method, claiming it "worked" on McCain, according to reports.
The White House reportedly issued a statement in response to Sadler's comment, and said that it respects McCain for his service to the United States. The statement, however, did not refer the aide's remarks about him.
Soon after the guest's remarks, the show's host Charles Payne issued an apology after the show, saying that he regretted not confronting his guest about the remark.