In his daily press briefing today, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer used Adolf Hitler as an analogy to Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.
“We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II. You know, you had a — someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to the… to the… using chemical weapons.”
Of course, he did, first gassing citizens deemed “unworthy of life,” then the mass murder of millions of Jews in killing centers and concentration camps equipped with gas chambers.
11 minutes later–after Spicer’s comments blew up on Twitter–ABC’s Cecilia Vega asked, “I want to give you an opportunity to clarify something.”
But Spicer only made it worse, saying Hitler “was not using the gas on his own people,” and calling the gas chambers, which Hitler used to kill millions of Jews, including Germans, “holocaust center.” WATCH:
Asked to clarify comment that Hitler didn't use chemical weapons, @PressSec says, "He was not using the gas on his own people" as Assad did. pic.twitter.com/K0CQPha1x9
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 11, 2017
A further clarification from Spicer:
#spicer #hitler clarification pic.twitter.com/JEz1jVzt9j
— Kevin Corke (@kevincorke) April 11, 2017
And CNN’s Jake Tapper‘s response
This doesn't really answer the question as to why doing it from a plane is worse than building gas chambers in death camps, of course.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 11, 2017
Actually, two statements of clarification, according to CNN’s Jim Acosta:
WH issues two statements to clarify Spicer on Hitler/Assad comparison. First is original statement. Second was issued to clarify. pic.twitter.com/lbYFolFlWA
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 11, 2017