WASHINGTON — The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, set off an intense backlash on Tuesday when he suggested
that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was guilty of acts worse than Hitler and asserted that Hitler had not used chemical weapons, ignoring the use of gas chambers at concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Sean Spicer Draws Backlash by Comparing Hitler With Assad -
By NICHOLAS FANDOS and MARK LANDLERAPRIL 11, 2017
The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, in discussing President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, caused an immediate uproar on Tuesday after stating
that Hitler had not used chemical weapons during World War II.
“You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”
He continued, “So you have to, if you are Russia, ask yourself: Is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with?”
The White House charged Tuesday that Russia had sought to cover up the Syrian government’s role in the chemical attack.
“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,” Mr. Spicer said, incorrectly, before mentioning “Holocaust centers,” an apparent reference to Nazi death camps.
“It’s, at the best, not thought out, and at the worst, shows a latent anti-Semitism.”
Shortly after his briefing, Mr. Spicer again tried to clarify his comments, saying in a statement
that he was not “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,” he said.