Weber Apologizes for Comment Comparing Obama, Hitler

_{*Editor's note: This story has been updated after U.S. Rep. Randy Weber issued an apology over his tweet.}

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Friendswood, apologized Tuesday for a controversial tweet that compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler.

“I need to first apologize to all those offended by my tweet,” the sophomore congressman said in a statement. 

“It was not my intention to trivialize the Holocaust nor to compare the President to Adolf Hitler,” he added. “The mention of Hitler was meant to represent the face of evil that still exists in the world today."

At issue was harsh criticism against Obama because no senior American official attended a rally in Paris in response to the recent "Charlie Hebdo" terrorist attacks.

Weber piled onto the criticism Monday night when he tweeted: 

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

— Randy Weber (@TXRandy14) January 13, 2015

Earlier in the day, Weber stood by his tweet in an interview with The Dallas Morning News, saying it was meant to "start a discussion" on the president's foreign policy

“I now realize that the use of Hitler invokes pain and emotional trauma for those affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust and the victims of anti-Semitism and hate,” Weber stated a few hours later in his apology.

National Democrats quickly took aim at him. Early Tuesday morning, the House Democrats' political arm distributed a report on the tweet to news outlets. A Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman described Weber as having a “toxic brand of politics.”

Longtime colleagues also took issue with the sentiment.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, entered the House the same year as Weber, and they have known each other since their days in the Texas Legislature. Veasey had little tolerance in an interview Tuesday with The Texas Tribune for the comparison.

“There are some places where you just don’t go, and Hitler is one of the places that you just don’t go,” Veasey told the Tribune. “To me, you just don’t make comparisons. It’s very insensitive, first of all, to do that."

Veasey had not seen the tweet verbatim as of Tuesday morning but was aware of it.  

"I hate that he decided to do that. I know Randy very well,” he added. 

“And I’m disappointed that he would invoke Hitler in that kind of comparison, I thought it was very unfortunate."

At the daily White House press briefing Tuesday, Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, declined to respond to the comment.