Sean Spicer incorrectly claimed that Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons during World War II while comparing him to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a Tuesday press conference.
Asked about Russian support for Assad, whose regime used chemical weapons against its citizens in an attack last week, Spicer pivoted to talking about Hitler.
“You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” he said.
Hitler’s Nazi regime used the deadly pesticide gas Zyklon B to kill concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust.
When offered a chance to clarify the comment, Spicer said Hitler “was not using the gas on his own people the same way Assad is doing.”
Hitler did employ chemical weapons against the German people. Prior to Hitler’s rise, Jewish people were assimilated German citizens. Nazi Germany also targeted the handicapped, homosexuals and Catholics — people considered citizens of Germany — during the Holocaust.
In a second clarification, Spicer said he was not “trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust.”
“However, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on innocent people,” he said.
A few minutes later, Spicer released yet another clarification, saying he was not trying to “lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust.”
- Volodymyr Zelensky and the Spirit of Ukraine: TIME's 2022 Person of the Year
- Mickey Guyton Is TIME's 2022 Breakthrough Artist of the Year
- The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2022
- Column: What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Free Speech
- The Forgotten Story of One of the First U.S. Soldiers Killed Overseas After Pearl Harbor
- Why You're More Likely to Get Sick in the Winter, According to New Research
- Column: What the Protests Tell Us About China's Future
- 18 Last-Minute Gifts for Everyone on Your List
