President Trump[1] said Monday that his White House[2] doesn’t have a big leak problem, but nevertheless vowed to punish leakers.
“The so-called leaks coming out of the White House[3] are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media[4] in order to make us look as bad as possible,” he tweeted. “With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!”
The White House[5] has struggled for days to quell a public relations nightmare after it was leaked that an aide said Sen. John McCain didn’t matter because “he was dying anyway.”
White House[6] communications aide Kelly Sadler made the remark last week about Mr. McCain, 81, who is battling brain cancer, at a closed-door meeting. The remark by Mrs. Sadler, a former editorial page employee at The Washington Times, was in response to the senator announcing his opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel.
A subsequent White House[7] meeting Friday about the leaking problem then resulted in a series of leaks to the news media[8], most prominently reported by Axios....
The episode was the latest in a series of leaks that have embarrassed and distracted the Trump administration, including leaks of Mr. Trump[9]’s private conversations with world leaders.