Shep Smith On Mockery Of McCain: ‘As Joe Biden Put It Today, Decency In America Has Hit Rock Bottom’
In the immediate aftermath of a report that White House aide Kelly Sadler mocked Sen. John McCain’s health when she dismissed his opposition to CIA director nominee Gina Haspel by saying “he’s dying anyway,” Fox News provided scant on-air coverage of the controversy. Nearly 24 hours after the story first hit, however, anchor Shepard Smith addressed the story at length and quoted a former veep to wrap up his thoughts at the end.
Following Friday’s White House press briefing in which White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she wouldn’t comment on Sadler’s mockery of McCain because she didn’t want to “validate a leak out of an internal staff meeting,” Smith highlighted Sander’s refusal to address the matter before showing a clip of The View co-host — and former Fox Newser — Meghan McCain suggesting Sadler should be fired.
“She does still have a job, Sarah Sanders did confirm that,” Smith said, adding that Fox News has also confirmed Sadler did indeed make a joke about McCain dying.
Smith then brought up Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney (Ret.) calling McCain “Songbird John” during a Fox Business segment Thursday morning. The Fox anchor pointed out that following the segment in which McInerney advocated for torture by claiming it “worked” on McCain when he was a POW in Vietnam, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed that McInerney wouldn’t be appearing on Fox News and Fox Business in the future. Smith further noted that the host of the segment, Fox Business’s Charles Payne, apologized to the McCain family while stating that he didn’t initially hear McInerney’s remark because the control room was in his ear.
“So here we are, a retired general accusing an American hero of being a traitor and a White House staffer saying out loud that a senator’s position doesn’t matter because he’s dying anyway,” Smith observed. “As Joe Biden put it today, decency in America has hit rock bottom.”
The former vice president released a statement on Friday on the McCain issue, stating people “have wondered when decency would hit rock bottom with this administration. It happened yesterday.”
Watch the clip above, via Fox News.
