Reporters Grill Raj Shah Over WH Stonewalling on McCain Comment: ‘Why Not Just Apologize?’

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah led today’s briefing and was grilled by reporters on the lack of a serious White House response to Kelly Sadler‘s nasty remark about John McCain.

Meghan McCain confirmed Sadler called her and said she had asked the White House aide to apologize publicly, but it has not happened yet. Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not offer an apology during last Friday’s briefing, and the White House appeares to be more concerned about the leak.

ABC News’ Cecilia Vega asked Shah, “Why not just apologize so America doesn’t think that is an acceptable way of speaking inside this White House?”

Shah insisted this has been “dealt with internally,” but declined to get more specific than that.

A few minutes later, NBC News’ Peter Alexander asked if the White House agreed with Matt Schlapp that Sadler is a “little bit of a victim here.”

Shah said, “When you work in any work environment… if you aren’t able, in internal meetings, to speak your mind or convey thoughts or say anything that you feel without feeling like your colleagues will betray you, that creates a very difficult work environment.”

Shah was directly asked about his personal reaction to Sadler’s comment, but he declined to do so and again said they “addressed it internally.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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