White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday he “let the president down” comparing Adolf Hitler to Syrian leader Bashar Assad and Mr. Assad’s actions against his people.
“I made a mistake. I got into a topic I shouldn’t have,” Mr. Spicer said at a Newseum event.
He added, “There’s no comparing atrocities.”
The White House spokesman also said that he felt his comments distracted from an “unbelievable couple of weeks” for President Trump and that he felt especially bad making such comments around the Jewish holiday of Passover.
“Of all weeks, this compounds this kind of mistake,” he said.
Mr. Spicer said he had not spoken to the president since making the comments, but declined to say whether anyone in the administration had given him a message from the president, saying, “I don’t get into private conversations.”
Mr. Spicer also downplayed reports of a growing feud between Steve Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, and other members of the Trump administration.
He said that he felt “palace intrigue [versus] policy is overblown.”
The White House press secretary said that reports of warring staffers is the result of differing opinions.
“There’s a lot of opinions,” he said. “Sometimes you see some of that spill over into the public and that’s unfortunate.”
Mr. Trump said in an interview with the New York Post this week that he likes Mr. Bannon, but also pointed out that he joined the campaign relatively late in the proceedings.
“Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will,” the president said.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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