House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called for the firing of White House press secretary Sean Spicer following his comments he made Tuesday at his briefing related to Adolf Hitler and the use chemical weapons.
“While Jewish families across America celebrate Passover, the chief spokesman of this White House is downplaying the horror of the Holocaust,” she said in a statement. “Sean Spicer must be fired, and the President must immediately disavow his spokesman’s statements. Either he is speaking for the President, or the President should have known better than to hire him.”
Spicer, in an effort to shame Russia’s alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his use of chemical weapons, said Tuesday that Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” during World War II.
Hitler didn’t use use chemical weapons on the battlefield but he and the Nazis used gas chambers to exterminate Jews.
“You had someone who was despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said. “So you have to, if you are Russia, ask yourself is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with.”
When asked to clarify later in the briefing, Spicer said: “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 … He brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that.”
After the hearing, Spicer said in a statement, “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,” he said. “Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable.”
The comments met the ire of at least one other notable group, which called for him to be terminated as press secretary.
Speaking on CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday, Steven Goldstein, the executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, labeled Spicer’s comment “a mistake” and held that he “should not be the spokesperson for the President.”
“He’s got to leave,” said Goldstein. “President Trump has got to fire Sean Spicer.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect.