There isn’t much left to be said about White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s recent inane comparison between Hitler and Assad and his declaration that Hitler did not use chemical weapons in World War II.
It was so, so stupid.
But I think one thing has been missed in all the coverage that this moment has received:
In addition to the stupidity of his statements, Sean Spicer is an inarticulate person. Just listen to his attempts to string actual sentences together into a coherent, cohesive message as he struggles to clarify his Hitler comment. He’s a verbal disaster. His inability to pause, think on his feet, slow down, and speak clearly should alone disqualify him for the position.
Being a White House Press Secretary is not an easy job. You face enormous unpredictability and a room filled with professional journalists who are hell bent on finding the truth. You have to keep enormous amounts of information at your fingertips at all times and be able to articulate the administration’s position on any number of issues.
Still, you’re the White House Press Secretary. You need to speak in complete sentences.
It only got worse when Spicer released an explanation (but not an apology) of his comments. It took at least three separately-released revisions of his statement before he finally got it right.
In the first explanation (but apology), Spicer mentions the tactic of dropping dropping chemical weapons on “innocent people.”
In this second version, “innocent people” is replaced with “population centers,” probably because the millions of people who Hitler murdered using chemical weapons were also innocent.
In this final version (I think), he removed that offensive “however.”
“In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust, however…” was not received well by anyone.
He also added a sentence of extreme obviousness to the end of the statement, which is the closest he will come to an apology and yet is nowhere close to an apology.
Saying dumb things is unacceptable for a White House Press Secretary. Though we are all permitted to make mistakes, Spicer has been making a lot of them. He has been caught in many, many lies, including that infamous fake terrorist incident in Atlanta and those record-breaking inauguration crowds.
Saying dumb things is very bad. Lying is worse.
But the inability to say anything clearly or release a statement without at least three revisions to that statement should disqualify you from the job.
