Ari Fleischer: I Accept Sean Spicer's Apology

Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday that Sean Spicer "made a bad mistake" when he incorrectly stated Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons during World War II, but Spicer "actually does a very able job of speaking for his boss," President Donald Trump.

"I say that not only as someone who used to sit in that job, but as a Jewish American who lost a significant number of my family members in the Holocaust," Fleischer, who served former President George W. Bush, told Anderson Cooper on CNN. "But Sean did realize, a couple of hours late, what a terrible thing he said.

"He apologized — and I accept that apology," Fleischer said.

Spicer, the current White House spokesman, was discussing Russia's alliance with Syria during the daily press briefing after the chemical attacks last week that killed 85 people and injured hundreds of others.

"You had someone who was as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons," Spicer told reporters. "So you have to, if you are Russia, ask yourself is this a country that you and a regime that you want to align yourself with."

Hitler and the Nazis killed as many as 1.5 million Jews and other people in gas chambers at concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Spicer later apologized, telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "I was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous acts that Assad had made against his own people last week, using chemical weapons and gas.

"Frankly, I mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which there is no comparison," he said. "And for that I apologize. It was a mistake to do that."

Fleisher told Cooper that Spicer "shouldn't have done it, and I'm glad that he apologized."

He also resisted calls for Spicer's resignation.

"He represents his boss and he does that very ably, which is the job of the press secretary," he told Cooper. "The press secretary is to represent what the president wants said.

"He made a mistake today, but he's a fine representative of what the president says."

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