During a Tuesday press briefing at the White House, Sean Spicer made one of his most costly mistakes since starting in the position earlier this year. While backlash quickly followed, Fox News did their best to ignore the story, until one host decided to speak out.
Fox News busted
It was just one week ago when Donald Trump decided to retaliate to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons on his own people in an attack that left nearly 100 innocent people dead, including children.
The reaction to Trump's decision has been mixed, with critics of the president remaining skeptical, while even some of his supporters speaking out. Since the move was made to strike the Syrian airbase with 50 tomahawk cruise missiles, the White House has done their best to spin the news into a positive for the former host of "The Apprentice." While taking questions from reporters on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was in the middle of discussing the issue when he made a major blunder. Spicer went on to try and compare Assad to Adolf Hitler, while claiming the former Nazi Party leader never used chemical weapons during the Holocaust.
Fact-checkers quickly debunked his claim, but not before the negative press piled on Spicer, with even the Anne Frank Center coming out and calling on Trump to fire his press secretary. While nearly all the media outlets covered the story, Fox News tried to bury it under the rest of the news, until a co-host on "The Five" spoke out on April 11.
(Beckel's comments on Sean Spicer start at 7:10 in the above video.)
During the Tuesday night addition of "The Five" on Fox News, liberal co-host Bob Beckel decided to break from the show's platform and call out the network for trying to ignore the issue with Sean Spicer. "I can't let this go, cause our producer didn't put it in the lineup, but Sean Spicer, the president's secretary, said today Hitler didn't gas his own people," Beckel said.
Not stopping there, Beckel added, "Sean, go back and take a hard look at the second World War."
Fellow Fox News co-host Greg Gutfeld attempted to defend Sean Spicer, stating, "Obviously he made a mistake Bob, thank God none of us here make a mistake like that." "That's a pretty big mistake," Beckel noted. In response, Gutfeld fired back, "I admit it's a big mistake, but lets remember how many mistake are made at this table."
Next up
As of press time, Sean Spicer has since come forward to apologize for his comments, doing so in an exclusive interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. It's unknown what Donald Trump had to say about the incident, though the consensus was that he was the leading voice behind Spicer making a public apology.