Trump urged to fire Hitler row press chief
Senior aide apologises after ‘insensitive’ remarks imply Nazi leader did not use chemical weapons
DONALD TRUMP’S White House press secretary prompted widespread criticism last night after suggesting that Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons, and referring to Nazi death camps as “Holocaust centres”.
Sean Spicer made his remarks while suggesting that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad had sunk lower than Hitler by using sarin gas in last week’s attack in Idlib, which killed at least 86 people.
The press secretary said: “We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War Two. You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t descend to using chemical weapons. So the question is if you’re Russia ask yourself is this a country, is this a regime you want to align yourself with?”
Hitler did not use chemical weapons on the battlefield, but he used gas chambers while murdering six million Jews. When asked for clarification, he said: “There was clearly not...he (Hitler) brought them into the Holocaust centre and I understand that.
“What I’m saying is Assad used them where he went into towns and dropped them down into the middle of towns.”
The US-based Anne Frank Centre for Mutual Respect later called on Mr Trump to fire Mr Spicer.
Mr Spicer later appeared on CNN and apologised for what he called an “inappropriate, insensitive reference to the Holocaust”. He called his own comments “misstated and wrong” and said they “did not reflect the president”.
Mr Spicer apologised to “anybody who not just suffered in the Holocaust, or anybody who is a descendent of anybody, but anyone who was offended”.
He added: “When you make a mistake you own it and ask people for their forgiveness.”
Asked if he knew that millions of Jews died in gas chambers he said: “Yes, clearly I am aware of that… I should have stayed on topic.”
Meanwhile, Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, landed in Moscow amid a deepening confrontation over Russia’s role in Syria and a US missile strike against a government-controlled airbase. Mr Tillerson is expected to try to persuade the Kremlin to drop its support for Assad.
The US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase in retaliation for the attack on Friday. Russia condemned the attack on its ally as an act of aggression and a breach of international law.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump warned that he would take unilateral action against North Korea if China does not act to rein in the rogue state’s nuclear arms programme.
He tweeted that he had told Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, during a visit to America last week that “a trade deal with the US will be far better” if Beijing solves the “North Korea problem”.
“North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.” he added.
Earlier, North Korea said it was “ready for war” and threatened nuclear retaliation after Mr Trump dispatched a US navy carrier strike group to the Korean peninsula. Mr Trump re-routed the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and three guided-missile destroyers and cruisers from Australia to the West Pacific in a statement of displeasure at Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman called Mr Trump’s move “reckless” and said the regime was “ready to react to any mode of war”.
“We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” he said in a statement.
North Korea has been testing military hardware with increasing frequency in recent months, to the alarm of Japan and South Korea and in violation of UN resolutions.
China and South Korea agreed at a meeting on Monday to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea if it carries out further nuclear or long-range missile tests.