Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Politics/National
NationalNewsPolitics

Sean Spicer Triggers Firestorm After Comparing Hitler, Syrian Leader Assad

By | Published on April 12, 2017
CommentsComments (0) Add as a preferred source on Google i

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tried to compare Adolf Hitler to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, saying even Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons against innocent people like Assad did. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Press Secretary Sean Spicer has put his foot in his mouth once again.

During his daily White House press briefing Tuesday, April 11, Spicer unequivocally declared that Adolf Hitler hadn’t used chemical weapons in World War II, sparking immediate outrage from all corners.

“We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II. You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said in his denouncement of Russia for backing Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Critics were quick to check the ill-informed White House spokesman, highlighting the Nazi’s use of toxic gas to kill millions of Jews and other groups during the Holocaust.

Last week, Assad’s regime waged a chemical weapons attack that killed scores of Syrian men, women and young children. U.S. forces responded with 50-60 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the air base that housed the war planes responsible for the attack.

The press secretary attempted to clarify his statement moments later but only made things worse.

“I think when you come to sarin gas, [Hitler] was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing,” Spicer said.

A reporter in the room shouted for him to again clarify his comments about Hitler’s use of toxic gas in the Holocaust, to which Spicer responded, “He brought them to the Holocaust center, I understand that,” seemingly in reference to the Jewish concentration camps. “What I am saying in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns, dropped them down to innocent, into the middle of towns, it was brought — so the use of it.”

While Hitler may not have dropped the gas on a town of innocent people, he definitely utilized chemical weapons in ordering the execution of millions of innocent Jews in gas chambers during WWI.

To make matters worse, Spicer’s ignorant comments came on the first day of Passover, which celebrates the emancipation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt.

The White House spokesman issued somewhat of an apology shortly after Tuesday’s press conference but stopped short of addressing the atrocities Hitler had committed.

“In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust,” Spicer said in a statement. “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.”

His remarks did very little to appease outraged critics, especially those of the Jewish faith.

Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, released a scathing statement asserting that Spicer had “engaged in Holocaust denial, the most offensive form of fake news imaginable, by denying Hitler gassed millions of Jews to death.” He then called on President Trump to fire him.

The U.S. Holocaust Museum tweeted a video from their collection showing what American troops discovered when they liberated the concentration camp in Buchenwald, Germany in April 1945.

Notable figures like Chelsea Clinton and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) were among several who took jabs at the press secretary for his offensive comments.

https://twitter.com/TheEvilOneBelow/status/852019717766131712

https://twitter.com/itsJarm/status/851996167277883392

Hours later, Spicer appeared on CNN to issue yet another apology for his misstep.

“I was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous acts that Assad had made against his own people last week, using chemical weapons and gas,” he said. “Frankly, I mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which there is no comparison.”

“And for that I apologize. It was a mistake to do that.”

Subscribe To The ABS Newsletter — Get our stories in your inbox.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Latest from Atlanta Black Star

Back to top