SPICER'S HITLER SHAME
White House spokesman Sean Spicer faces calls to be sacked after saying Hitler ‘didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons’ in bizarre Assad comparison
WHITE House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has been hit by a backlash after saying Adolf Hitler "didn't even sink to using chemical weapons" in an attack on the Assad regime.
Spicer was attempting to discuss the horror of the chemical weapons attack last week in Syria, which the Trump administration is blaming on President Bashar al-Assad.
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"We didn't use chemical weapons in World War II," said Spicer, adding that "someone as despicable as Hitler... didn't even sink to using chemical weapons."
He also branded concentration camps 'Holocaust centres' in the bizarre rant.
His comment are at odds with Hitler's use of gas chambers to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.
Minutes later, Spicer delivered a garbled defence of his remarks in which he tried to differentiate between Hitler's actions and the gas attack on Syrian civilians .
The attack in northern Syria left nearly 90 people dead, and Turkey's health minister said tests show sarin gas was used.
"I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no, he (Hitler) was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing," Spicer said.
"There was clearly ... I understand your point, thank you. There was not... he brought them into the Holocaust centre I understand that."
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"I appreciate the clarification. That was not the intent," he said.
After the briefing, Spicer emailed a statement to reporters: "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 later issued an apology over his comments, admitting he had made "insensitive" references.
A contrite Spicer appeared on US television expressing regret for the comments, saying: "Frankly, I mistakenly used an inappropriate and insensitive comment about the Holocaust and there is no comparison.
"For that I apologise. It was a mistake to do that."
Spicer's comments came on the first day of Passover and a day after the White House held a Seder dinner marking the emancipation of the Jewish people.
According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis experimented with poison gas in late 1939 with the killing of mental patients, which was termed "euthanasia".
Both mobile and stationary gas chambers were later used, with up to 6,000 Jews gassed each day at Auschwitz alone.
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The comments immediately reverberated through the Jewish community.
The New York-based Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect called on Trump to fire Spicer, saying he denied that Hitler gassed Jews during the Holocaust.
Jewish Democrats also quickly denounced Spicer's comments.
Senator Ben Cardin said on Twitter, "Someone get @PressSec a refresher history course on Hitler #Icantbelievehereallysaidthat."
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said on Twitter he found "nothing funny about the Press Secretary bungling holocaust history. Because I'm not sure they should get the benefit of the doubt."
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