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.
Spicer made these statements at Tuesday’s
press briefing and claimed that the Nazi führer never used chemical
weapons against civilians, unlike Assad. This statement sparked global
outrage and led Americans to troll him on Twitter.
“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.
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…
360L
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