White House's Sarah Sanders berated ‘selfish’ staff member for leaking ‘dying’ McCain joke in tense meeting: report

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders lashed out at the White House communications team for "selfish" leaks to the press, Axios reported on Saturday.

The Friday meeting came as the news cycle was dominated with coverage of communications staffer Kelly Sadler's "joke" about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) dying of brain cancer.

“No one is condoning the remark,” a source in the room argued. “The message to the staff is that leaking it to the press is not how you handle it.”

That account seems at odds with a source who told Axios that strategic communications director Mercedes Schlapp came to Sadler's defense.

“You can put this on the record... I stand with Kelly Sadler," Schlapp reportedly told the communications team.

Sanders was described as visibly upset and furious.

“I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too. And that’s just disgusting,” Sanders argued.

Her prediction that the meeting against leaking would leak was accurate.