Washington • Advisers to President Donald Trump paid tribute Sunday to the long service of Sen. John McCain but stopped short of apologizing to him for a cruel remark by a White House communications aide about the Arizona Republican’s battle with brain cancer.
In a prepared statement, and in some public appearances, Trump advisers praised McCain’s service as a senator and naval aviator held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. But they declined to comment on the remarks of Kelly Sadler, who told other communications aides at a closed-door staff meeting that McCain’s opposition to Gina Haspel as CIA director did not matter because “he’s dying anyway.