Leaking at the White House is so out of control that the communications team may be reduced in size to combat the problem. The leak of communications aide Kelly Sadler’s comment that Sen. John McCain can be ignored because he’s “dying anyway” precipitated the latest crisis, but the whole thing is also a symptom of a White House in massive disarray.
Staffers are not expected to be fired outright, but pushed out slowly or shifted to other departments in the administration outside of the West Wing, the officials said. It will also likely affect junior aides without clearly defined responsibilities. The reason staffers aren't expected to be fired directly is because, although the White House has taken several steps to combat leaks including canceling the daily communications meeting, senior officials aren't confident about who it is exactly that is doing the leaking, one official noted.
We don’t know who’s leaking so we aren’t going to fire anyone but we are going to do a major restructuring especially of “junior aides without clearly defined responsibilities,” which … how many of those are there? And once again we see that the White House is much more upset that Sadler’s comment leaked than with the comment itself.
One final question: does this story, sourced to “two officials with knowledge of the expected changes,” count as a leak itself?