HE'S REICH AND WRONG

Furor over Spicer Holocaust blunder

White House press secretary Sean Spicer made an astonishing claim Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is worse than Adolf Hitler because the Nazi tyrant — who massacred millions in gas chambers — never used chemical weapons.

“Someone who is [as] despicable as Hitler didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said during his daily White House press briefing.

Minutes later, following a brief topic shift, one reporter offered him a chance to clarify his remarks.

“Quote, ‘Hitler didn’t even sink to the level of using chemical weapons.’ What did you mean by that?” the reporter asked.

At first, Spicer seemed confused by the question and stuttered a response.

“When it comes to sarin gas, [Hitler] was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing,” he said.

“He brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that. I was saying in the way that Assad used them, where he went into town, dropped them into the middle of town. I appreciate the clarification. That was not the intent.”

The mouth of one White House press aide, seated along the briefing-room wall, seemed to fall open in a half-gasp, The Washington Post reported.

Before the briefing was even over, White House aides worked on a further clarification and Spicer later issued another statement of explanation.

“In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust,” he said.

“I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable.”

But Jewish leaders said there was no way to walk back the comments.

Steven Goldstein, director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect and a frequent critic of President Trump, called for Spicer to be fired.

“On Passover, no less, Sean Spicer has engaged in Holocaust denial, the most offensive form of fake news imaginable, by denying Hitler gassed millions of Jews to death. Spicer’s statement is the most evil slur upon a group of people we have ever heard from a White House press secretary,” he said on the group’s Facebook page.

“Sean Spicer now lacks the integrity to serve as White House press secretary, and President Trump must fire him at once.”

American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris also slammed the embattled presidential spokesman.

“AJC is astonished by White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s comment today that Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons. What did the Nazis use to exterminate millions of Jews if not chemicals in their death camps?” he said in a statement to the New York Post.

Twitter predictably exploded over the embarrassing gaffe.

“HAPPENING NOW: Ivanka telling her dad Sean Spicer has to go,” conservative commentator Bill Kristol tweeted. “LATER TODAY: Sean Spicer goes.”

In January, the White House took heat from Jewish groups for not mentioning Jews in a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

At the time, Spicer dismissed the criticism as “pathetic.”