Hitler 'didn't even sink to. using chemical weapons, ' Spicer proclaimed from the podium during Tuesday's press briefing, comments that immediately erupted into a controversy. He made the remarks while discussing Syria's Bashar al-Assad and a recent chemical attack that killed dozens in the country.
"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.
When reporters reminded him that Hitler did in fact use gas to kill millions during the Holocaust, the press secretary tried to backpedal - and then dug an even deeper hole.
"I'm concerned you don't know how Medicaid works", one woman asked with laughter.
Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday that Spicer's comment "only shows what is in any case the German government's position - any comparison of current situations with Nazi crimes leads to nothing good". "Frankly, I mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which there is no comparison", Spicer said.
After Spicer's apology on Blitzer's broadcast Tuesday evening, a person close to Spicer told CNN's Jeff Zeleny that the press secretary's fate is unknown.
Putin meets Tillerson as U.S., Russian Federation fiercely feud over Syria
Could Syria have launched the chemical weapons attack with Russia's advance knowledge? It's very bad for this world, " Trump said. The Moscow news conference came after Mr Putin met Mr Tillerson for the first time since Mr Trump took office.
"How about that Sean Spicer baked potato guy?"
"Before he [Spicer] goes out there, he's [Trump] like, 'Say something about Hitler and, yeah, the Holocaust".
He called his comments particularly "reprehensible" for falling during Passover, and he said it was especially frustrating that he disrupted a successful period for the president after "productive" talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
'There's no comparing atrocities, ' he added.
He asserted that President Trump had an "unbelievable" couple of weeks and conceded that his remarks had caused distraction from that accomplishment.
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