The Atlantic

How Bill Clinton Stopped White House Leaks

And why the Trump administration will struggle to replicate his strategy.
Source: Wilfredo Lee / AP

All happy families are alike, Tolstoy could have said, but all unhappy families are aleak.

This is the challenge for the Trump administration this week, as it faces the latest series of embarrassing disclosures from within. First, someone revealed to reporters that press aide Kelly Sadler had dismissed Senator John McCain’s opposition to CIA Director-select Gina Haspel, saying, “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”

The comment was breathtakingly callous, even as a dark joke, and someone saw fit to tell reporters, either because they were out to get Sadler, or because they were appalled, or for some other reason. The specifics don’t matter a great deal: The point is that someone disclosed this remark from an internal meeting.

And leaks tend to beget more leaks. , Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called a meeting to scold staffers for telling reporters, but she added, “I am sure this conversation is going

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