Rep. Mike Coffman became the first Republican to call for White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to resign over his gaffe Tuesday that Adolf Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons during World War II.
The Colorado Republican told a town hall crowd Wednesday that Mr. Spicer is not doing President Trump any favors by staying as his spokesman.
“He needs to go,” Mr. Coffman said to a round of applause. “Because I just don’t think he’s serving the president well.”
“He didn’t mention that 6 million Jews were killed by chemicals,” Mr. Coffman said, ABC News reported. “He was incompetent in his delivery, and I think he’s obviously serving the president poorly and oughta go.”
Mr. Spicer has repeatedly apologized for his comments made during a press briefing Tuesday that sparked a social media firestorm and calls for his resignation. He had made an effort to condemn Syrian President Bashar Assad by arguing that even Hitler had not used chemical weapons against his own people like Assad had.
Mr. Spicer later apologized in separate interviews on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, explaining that in an effort to make a point about the heinous acts of Mr. Assad, he “mistakenly made an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which there is no comparison.”
SEE ALSO: Sean Spicer: I ‘let the president down’ with Hitler-Assad comments
He also apologized Wednesday during a discussion with Greta Van Susteren at the Newseum in D.C.
“I made a mistake, there’s no other way to say it,” Mr. Spicer said. “I got into a topic I shouldn’t have, and I screwed up.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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