Senator John McCain's daughter is dismissing attacks against her ailing father, saying "no one is going to remember" those who disparaged him.
Meghan McCain defended her father Friday on The View, a television show she co-hosts, after a White House official said of McCain's opposition to the administration's pick to head the CIA, "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway."
Kelly Sadler, a special assistant in the White House communications office, is reported to have made the comment Thursday in a White House communications staff meeting.
Meghan McCain said that those who disparage her father are "nothingburgers," or people of no consequence.
"My father's legacy is going to be talked about for hundreds and hundreds of years,'' she said, adding that she wondered why those people attacking McCain still have a job.
"I don't understand the kind of environment you're working in where that would be acceptable and you can come to work the next day and still have a job," Meghan McCain said.
John McCain, an 81-year-old Republican senator from Arizona, is battling brain cancer.
Two people who heard the comment about John McCain and spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity said they felt "shocked and stunned" by the remark. The remarks have been confirmed by other media outlets.
CNN quoted a White House staffer who said that Sadler meant the comment as a joke but that it flopped.
White House statement
The White House did not deny the remark. It issued a statement saying, "We respect Senator McCain's service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time."
Thursday evening after Sadler's remarks were reported, McCain's wife, Cindy, posted on Twitter: "May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren."
John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, issued a statement Wednesday urging the Senate to vote against Gina Haspel for CIA director. He said he believes Haspel is a patriot, but "her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying."
The senator returned to Arizona in December after receiving a diagnosis of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
Difficult relationship
John McCain and President Donald Trump have a troubled relationship.
During the presidential election campaign, Trump said of McCain: "He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured."
McCain famously returned to Washington from Arizona last year to cast a deciding vote against the Republican health care repeal.
Trump later told the Conservative Political Action Conference that "except for one senator, who came into a room at 3 o'clock in the morning and went like that" — Trump gave a thumbs-down — "we would have had health care (reform), too."
The crowd booed and Trump added, "I won't use his name."
