Doubling down on his formal apology following his epic Tuesday gaffe, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told Politico that his comments about the Holocaust were a “straight up mistake” but said he won’t be resigning.
“I made a mistake by trying to make a comparison that was completely wrong,” he told the outlet on Tuesday evening. “I don’t even know how to explain it.”
While condemning the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack last week that killed more than 80 civilians, Spicer compared Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler, suggesting that even the leader of Nazi Germany didn’t “sink to using chemical weapons.”
Asked to further clarify his comments, Spicer told ABC News’ Cecila Vega, “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.”
Shortly after the Tuesday press briefing, the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect issued a statement calling for Spicer to be fired but the 45-year-old told Politico he would be back in front of the White House press pool this week.
Two White House officials and two White House advisers further told Politico that Spicer’s job did not seem at risk, though President Trump was unhappy with the incident.
Defending the difficulty of Spicer’s position, former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer, told the outlet, “Until you’ve stood at that podium, you have no idea how hard it is day in and day out to never make a mistake.”
Fleischer added, “Sean made a big one today. He handled it properly. He apologized. Now, he’s going to take a pounding, and he’s going to move forward.”
