The question Spicer was asked: "What makes you think that, at this point, [Putin] is going to pull back his support for President Assad and the Syrian government" after years of remaining allies?
His response: "We didn't use chemical weapons in World War II... Hitler didn't even sink to using chemical weapons."
- Clarification 1 (live): "I think when you come to sarin gas... he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing... He brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that. What I was saying was in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns, dropped them down... the use of it."
- Clarification 2 (statement): "In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust; however, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplane to drop chemical weapons on innocent people."
- Clarification 3 (statement): "In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust; however, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplane to drop chemical weapons on population centers."
- Clarification 4 (statement): "In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust; however, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplane to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable."