White House press secretary Sean Spicer verbally stumbled his way into a stunningly bad Hitler comparison during Tuesday’s daily briefing with reporters in a discussion about chemical weapons in Syria.
In an attempt to underscore the uniquely reprehensible nature of chemical weaponry, Spicer began to draw a parallel between the Syrian government and Germany during World War II, ultimately saying, “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”
Asked later in the briefing to clarify, Spicer stammered out a shaky response, remarking, “I think when you come to sarin gas, [Hitler] was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.”
Tripping over his words as reporters in the briefing room pushed back, Spicer worked to defend his statement, arguing, “But in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns and dropped them down to innocent, in the middle of towns,” before trailing off and concluding, “I appreciate the clarification, that was not the intent.”
As the scene played out, it felt almost like watching a self-assured high schooler get fact-checked in an argument at the lunch table, struggling to compensate for their misplaced confidence without conceding a point.
In all fairness, Spicer’s job involves spending hours every week on national television facing some of the toughest questions from a skeptical press corps on every major issue of the day. His job is not an easy one.
Still, Spicer’s initial decision to make the comparison was totally unprompted. He did not have to go there, but chose to of his own volition.
While it’s certain that Spicer would never intentionally downplay the Holocaust, as a representative of the administration, and a person with a brain, the press secretary should have known better.
I imagine he realizes that now.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
