Rep. Randy Weber apologizes for tweet comparing President Obama to Hitler

WASHINGTON (KTRK) -- Republican Rep. Randy Weber apologized Tuesday for comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in a tweet related to the Paris terrorist attacks.

Congressional Democrats and Jewish groups had denounced the comment Weber sent on his official Twitter account Monday night.

"I need to first apologize to all those offended by my tweet," the Texas congressman said in a written statement, which he also tweeted. "It was not my intention to trivialize the Holocaust nor to compare the President to Adolf Hitler."

The tweet on TXRandy14 read: "Even Adolph Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn't do it for right reasons"

It refers to Hitler's tour of the vanquished city after his troops invaded in World War II, and Obama's failure to join dozens of world leaders at an anti-terror march through Paris on Sunday.

Before the apology was issued, we spoke with Rep. Weber, who told us, "I wanted to start a discussion about the President's lack of action. I did that. As a member of the foreign affairs committee, I think his inaction shows he doesn't understand, doesn't care that radical Islamic Extremism is a threat, is disengaged, or all of the above."

"I wasn't comparing him to Hitler or calling him Hitler," Weber went on to say. "I was using Hitler as an example that evil existed and still exists in the form of radical Islamist extremism, but the President doesn't get it. Paris reminds us that evil exists in the world."

When asked if would tweet it again, given the response: "I probably would tweet it in four or five tweets to better explain my intent."

In demanding an apology, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., called the tweet "vile" and said it "stoops to a new low level by desecrating the victims of the Holocaust to make a political point."

Robert Singer, CEO of the World Jewish Congress, said that "putting Mr. Obama on a level with the most evil mass murderer of all times crosses a red line."

In his statement, Weber said that "the mention of Hitler was meant to represent the face of evil that still exists in the world today."

"I now realize that the use of Hitler invokes pain and emotional trauma for those affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust and victims of anti-Semitism and hate," he said.

Asked Tuesday if he had any reaction to Weber's Tweet, White House spokesman Josh Earnest replied, "I don't."

The White House has acknowledged that Obama or another high-level representative of the U.S. should have joined the march in unity with the French following attacks that left 17 people dead. The absence was widely noted, and heavily criticized by congressional Republicans.

The Democrats' campaign organization was quick to denounce Weber's tweet and to connect the incident to the recent controversy over Majority Whip Steve Scalise's 2002 speech to a white supremacist group. Scalise has said he regrets the speech and didn't understand the nature of the group.

"Congressional Republicans like Weber are clearly catering to the most extreme elements - first refusing to condemn Steve Scalise's inexcusable affiliation with KKK members, and now this," said Josh Schwerin, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Speaker (John) Boehner and Republican leaders need to step forward and condemn Congressman Weber and his toxic brand of politics."

Weber was one of 25 Republicans who voted against Boehner last week as insufficiently conservative to be speaker. Weber was elected to Congress in 2012, taking the seat opened by Ron Paul's retirement.

Weber has a history of inflammatory remarks, and misspellings, on Twitter.

In a tweet last year he called Obama a "Socialistic dictator" and "Kommandant-In-Chef," presumably meaning "chief."

Monday's tweet used "Adolph" instead of "Adolf" for Hitler's first name.

The Associated Press contributed to this report