White House Press Secretary stepped in it this week. During Tuesday’s briefing, he said this when answering a question related to the recent chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed at least 80 people, including women and children, and the massive missile attack that occurred in response to that heinous assault. He made a reference to Adolf Hitler, saying that he didn’t stoop as low as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and gas his own people. It was wrong. It was stupid. and it was a total trainwreck since Zyklon B was used to gas victims of the Nazi Holocaust. [emphasis mine]:
Q: Thanks a lot, Sean. The alliance between Russia and Syria is a strong one; it goes back decades. President Putin has supplied personnel, he’s supplied military equipment to the Assad government. What makes you think that at this point he’s going to pull back in his support for President Assad and for the Syrian government right now?MR. SPICER: I think a couple things. You look -- we didn't use chemical weapons in World War II. You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons. So you have to, if you're Russia, ask yourself is this a country that you and a regime that you want to align yourself with? You have previously signed on to international agreements rightfully acknowledging that the use of chemical weapons should be out of bounds by every country. To not stand up to not only Assad, but your own word, should be troubling.
[…]
Q: Sean, thanks. I just want to give you an opportunity to clarify something you said that seems to be gaining some traction right now. “Hitler didn’t even sink to the level of using chemical weapons.” What did you mean by that?
MR. SPICER: I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no -- he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing, I mean, there was clearly -- I understand your point, thank you.
Q :I'm just getting --
MR. SPICER: Thank you, I appreciate that. There was not -- he brought them into the Holocaust center, 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 -- so the use of it -- I appreciate the clarification there. That was not the intent.
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Twitter ripped Spicer a new one. He apologized after the briefing and later elaborated on that apology at an event in the Newseum the following morning. In all, if you want to make a Hitler reference, don’t. They’re usually wrong and often end in disaster. Yet, if we’re going to rake Spicer over the coals, I guess MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who is also their resident Hitler scholar, is next since he also said that the infamous German dictator never used chemical weapons. This was back in August of 2013, when Ghouta, Syria was subject to a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people,some estimates soared over a thousand (via RCP) [emphasis mine]:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: "The problem is, I don't like it, first of all I'm rather dovish, I don't like what I'm going to say but it's true. If you basically put down a red line and say don't use chemical weapons, and it's been enforced in the Western community, around the world -- international community for decades. Don't use chemical weapons. We didn't use them in World War II, Hitler didn't use them, we don't use chemical weapons, that's no deal. Although we do know that Assad's father did. Then he goes ahead and does it. It makes you wonder what the mullahs will do if they have a couple of nuclear weapons, just a couple. Are they capable of not using them? That, of course, you know, I think that everybody talking this morning is projecting toward that, which is if you can't use deterrents the normal way -- mutually-assured destruction -- if you do this, we're blowing you up. If that doesn't work, what does work? And that's the problem."
Where were the pitchforks then? Oh, that’s right; a Democrat was in the White Office—and Matthews was a fan of Obama. Hence, the miles of political cover her. It must be nice in the shade.
I’m not saying that Spicer deserves a pass because Matthews said pretty much the same thing four years ago. No, quite the opposite, Spicer should get a thorough thrashing for this idiotic remark. At the same time, I would suggest to the Left that once you’re done venting, move on. Don’t make this anything more than it already is (i.e. Spicer is a Holocaust-denier/ Hitler apologist/anti-Semite) because your side said equally stupid statements about the same subject. The only difference is that Matthew avoided the social media mobs.
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