Press Secretary Sean Spicer made a series of political blunders when he called concentration camps "Holocaust Centres" and claimed Hitler was not as bad as Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"You look – we didn't use chemical weapons in World War II. You know, you had a – you know, someone as despicable as Hitler, who didn't even sink to ... using chemical weapons," Spicer told reporters.
"So you have to – if you're Russia, is this a country that you, and a regime that you want to align yourself with?" SPicer said in refernce to Russia being allies with Syria and supporting them.
He soon apologized for the gaffe after a reporter pointed out his error. Spicer tried to defend his statement but made another blunder in the process.
He said:
"I mean, there was clearly – I understand, I mean – thank you – I appreciate that – there was – not in the," he stammered
Hitler had "brought them into the Holocaust centers," Spicer acknowledged. "And I understand that. But I'm 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 – and so, the use of it, I appreciate the clarification. That was not the intent."
Twitter has since been flooded with people mocking Spicer his comments, with some comparing his mistake with the PR mistakes recently made by United Airlines and Pepsi. Politicians also weighed in and accused Spicer of insensitivity especially at a time when Jews all over the world were marking the Passover.
"Sean Spicer just referred to concentration camps as Holocaust centers. Y'know, like shopping malls, but for genocide," one Twitter user wrote.
The White House issued three different statements from Spicer, each meant to replace the last. In the statement, Spicer explained that he was simply trying to make a point about the heinous crimes Assad had carried out against his people using chemical weapons and admitted that there was no comparison between Assad and Hitler. The final draft read in part:
"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.
Soon after, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, a group linked loosely with the famed girl diarist, demanded that Spicer be removed from his position because he "engaged in Holocaust denial, the most offensive form of fake news imaginable."
Hitler primarily used Zyklon B, a powerful cyanide gas, to exterminate Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, priests, political dissidents and other enemies of the state.
During an appearance on CNN, Spicer was asked if he was aware that Jews had been gassed during Hitler's reign. He replied:
"Yes, clearly I'm aware of that," Spicer said, and added that he was apologizing to "anybody who not just suffered in the holocaust or is a descendant of anybody, but frankly anyone who was offended by those comments."
See tweets below...
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