"You had someone who was as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons", Spicer told reporters.
On Tuesday, in denouncing Assad's regime in Syria, White House Secretary Sean Spicer compared Assad to Adolph Hitler, saying that not even Hitler used chemical weapons on his own people.
The White House spokesman tried to clarify his comments in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
"I was trying to make a point about the heinous acts that Assad had made against his own people last week using chemical weapons and gas", he told Blitzer.
"He apologized - and I accept that apology", Fleischer said.
"I understand your point, thank you", Spicer said. I appreciate that. There was not, in the, he brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that.
Spicer: I think a couple things.
Spicer has since publicly apologized for his remarks, calling it a mistake and a blunder. "And that's why I should have just stayed on topic". I should have stayed focused on the Assad regime and the dangers they have brought to their own people and the bad atrocities they did and to drag any other comparisons into this was not appropriate.
Shortly after Spicer's comments, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum sent out footage of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
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The White House generated criticism at the start of the year when a statement on global Holocaust Remembrance Day did not make any reference to Jews. However, he certainly authorized the use of gas against innocent people in concentration camps. In January, the White House released a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day that made no mention of Jews or the anti-Semitic views that fueled the Holocaust.
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said on Twitter he found "nothing amusing about the Press Secretary bungling holocaust history".
White House press secretary Sean Spicer apologized on Tuesday for remarks that were viewed as downplaying the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Despite that, the reaction to Spicer's comments has been a mix of shock and fury. "Sean Spicer now lacks the integrity to serve as White House press secretary, and President Trump must fire him at once", he said in a statement.
The comments came a day after the White House was forced to walk back remarks Mr Spicer made from the podium that the use of barrel bombs by Mr Assad's government might lead to further military action by the US. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said on Twitter, "Someone get @PressSec a refresher history course on Hitler stat (hashtag)#Icantbelievehereallysaidthat".
On Monday, he suggested that Trump could take military action if Assad were to drop more barrel bombs - a regular occurrence in Syria's brutal war and a red line that would nearly immediately be breached, making USA military action all but certain.
US House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called on Republican President Donald Trump to reject Spicer's assertion.
In a statement issued after the briefing, Spicer said "in no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust".
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