White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made a major gaffe at his press briefing on Tuesday on America’s recent missile strike on a Syrian airfield.
When discussing America’s commitment to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he made an ill-formed comparison to Adolf Hitler in World War II saying, “You had someone as despicable as Hitler, who didn’t even sink to chemical weapons” in an effort to shame Russia’s alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his use of chemical weapons.
While Hitler did not use chemical weapons on the battlefield, Hitler and the Nazis used gas chambers to exterminate Jews.
Audible gasps could be heard reverberating throughout the press briefing room after the Spicer made the comment.
When asked to clarify his comments later in the briefing Spicer said: “I think when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.”
Reporters in the briefing room offered the Holocaust as an example of chemical weapons use. “He brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that,” Spicer said. “But in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns and dropped them down to innocent in the middle of towns,” he added, defending his statement. “I appreciate the clarification, that was not the intent.”
Spicer response only served to stir up more controversy considering he seemed to refer to concentration camps as “the Holocaust center.”
In a statement issued after the briefing, Spicer said “in no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust.”
“I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable,” he said.
Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, noted the holiday in a statement that accused Spicer of engaging in “Holocaust denial.”
“Spicer’s statement is the most evil slur upon a group of people we have ever heard from a White House press secretary. Sean Spicer now lacks the integrity to serve as White House press secretary, and President Trump must fire him at once,” he said in a statement.
Watch the hard-to-watch moment here:
Spicer on Syria: “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons…” pic.twitter.com/UN3JfRRg0w
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 11, 2017
Here's the followup @PressSec comment about Assad & Hitler. I've rewound it 4 times. Did he say "Holocaust center?" https://t.co/oVQAWmm570
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 11, 2017
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