White House press secretary Sean Spicer prompted an intense outcry on social media Tuesday by appearing to assert that not even Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler resorted to the use of chemical weapons against his own people the way Syrian President Bashar Assad has done.
Defending the Trump administration’s missile strike on Mr. Assad’s military air base in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians, Mr. Spicer said, “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”
Reporters in the White House press room and commenters on Twitter instantly noted that Hitler used chemicals to gas Jews in Nazi death camps during World War II. Mr. Spicer tried to clarify his remark by explaining that he meant to say that Hitler’s security forces never employed chemical weapons on the battlefield.
“He was not using the gas on his own people in the same way that Assad is doing,” he said.
Within minutes, the comments were leading cable news broadcasts and lighting up social media with observations of disbelief and condemnation.
“I hope @PressSec takes time to visit @HolocaustMuseum,” tweeted former first daughter Chelsea Clinton. “It’s a few blocks away.”
After the briefing concluded, Mr. Spicer’s office offered yet another clarification of his remarks.
“In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust,” the statement said. “However, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers.”
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