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Matt Schlapp Left Michelle Wolf’s Set In Disgust, Now Says Staffer Who Joked About McCain Dying Is A ‘Victim’

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 03:39 PST, May 14, 2018

Matt Schlapp made it known that he and his wife walked out of Michelle Wolf’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner performance in disgust after the comedian made fun of Donald Trump and other White House staffers.

But now that it’s the White House coming under fire for an offensive “joke,” Schlapp apparently doesn’t see the big deal.

The conservative commentator, and husband of White House communication chief Mercedes Schlapp, appeared on CNN on Monday morning and defended Kelly Sadler, the White House staffer who reportedly joked that John McCain’s vote on the new CIA chief doesn’t matter because McCain “is dying anyway.” Matt Schlapp said he did not see the big deal over the comment, and said that Sadler is a “victim” in the matter because someone leaked her comments to the public.

“Kelly is my friend and I feel bad she is going through this,” Matt Schlapp told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, via Talking Points Memo. “She showed character to immediately call to apologize, but she’s also a little bit of a victim here. I don’t blame anyone like you, Chris, for running with leaks out of the White House, it’s your job. The problem is none of us were in that room. The people who leaked what she said are clearly people who have an animus against her and that’s the problem in this White House.”

Just a few weeks earlier, Matt Schlapp appeared to be much more sensitive about biting “jokes” when they were aimed at the White House. After comedian Michelle Wolf’s performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in which she laid into Donald Trump for not being as wealthy as he claims and at staffers Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders for lying, Schlapp shared on Twitter that he and his wife walked out of the performance in disgust.

Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union and one of the most powerful figures in the conservative movement, said he was tired of “elites” like comedian Michelle Wolf mocking the White House.

Mercedes Schlapp, who also walked out of Michelle Wolf’s performance, had already gone on the record supporting Kelly Sadler after the joke about John McCain dying. In a private White House meeting last week, Schlapp said that she “stands with” Sadler against the blowback from McCain’s family and from members of Congress who have demanded an apology.

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