messages on syria and assad, press secretary sean spicer with a major backlash, what he said about holocau holocaust. in russia, a showdown as secretary of state takes a hard line and the u.s. accuses putin's government of a cover-up. >>> growing night mare for united. what the airline ceo is saying now that outrage grows, united stock takes a hit and nbc news obtains new video of the moments before a doctor was dragged off a plane. >>> prostrate cancer, a new screening. >>> live to tell. a medical

. >>> white house press secretary sean spicer is apologizing for comments he made about holocau holocausthe told media forum in washington dc this morning he let president trump down. correspondent jang as the latest from the white house. >> reporter: white house press secretary sean spicer was in the hot seat wednesday at media forum in washington. he was invited to talk about the trump administration's relationship with the press. sean, let's start with yesterd yesterday. >> but spicer himself quickly became the focus. >> i made a mistake. there's no other way to say it. got into a topic i shouldn't have. >> reporter: less than 24 hours earlier, spicer compared syrian dictator bashar al-assad chemical weapons attack on his own citizen to adolph hitler's actions. >> you had someone despicable as hitler who didn't even sink to the -- to the -- to using chemical weapons. >> spicer stumbled when trying to clarify. apparently forgetting the millions of jewish people who died in gas chambers during the holocaust. >> there was not in the he brought them into the, um, to the holocaust center i

messages on syria and assad, press secretary sean spicer with a major backlash, what he said about holocau holocaust. in russia, a showdown as secretary of state takes a hard line and the u.s. accuses putin's government of a cover-up. >>> growing night mare for united. what the airline ceo is saying now that outrage grows, united stock takes a hit and nbc news obtains new video of the moments before a doctor was dragged off a plane. >>> prostrate cancer, a new screening. >>> live to tell. a medical student's miraculous survival story shot on camera while running to the rescue. "nightly news" begins right now. >> announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >> good evening, the white house struggling to find a singular message about its syria policy following thursday's cruise missile attack tonight finds itself suddenly engaged in damage control after spokesman sean spicer tried to draw a moral comparison between bashar al assad and adolf hitler saying hitler didn't even sink to using chemical weapons. the historical fact he gassed jews and ot

. >> and after efforts to >> i mistakenly used an inappropriate word for the holocau holocaust, and there's and it was a mistake to do that. >> so far president trump has not commented. >>> this morning the red cross is helping 60 people forced out of their apartments by a fire in san francisco. firefighters evacuated the building on clay after the fire broke out around 9:00. firefighters say it started in the basement and storage area, and residential units above. >>> happening today a san francisco sheriff's deputy accused of giving a firearm of a convicted felon is expected to be arraigned on new charges. in march of 2016 meyers told police her department-issued gun had been stolen in a home burglary, but they determined the break-in was staged. the weapon was discovered in a vehicle owned by fowler. yesterday prosecutors charged meyers with giving a firearm to a convicted felon. >>> that this motorcycle hit a 9-year-old boy in a santa cruz crosswalk. police say the motorcyclist tried to get around stopped traffic and slam spwaod the boy and left the scene. the boy has significant injuri

there was not -- in the -- he brought them into the holocau holocaust -- ien understand tha.opped them into the middle of the towns, it was brought -- so the use of it, i appreciate the clarification. that was not the intent. >> spicer put out a statement and appeared on three different news channels to apologize. he did it again this morning in an interview at the museum. >> that got into the topic that i shouldn't have and i screwed up. so i would ask obviously for folks' forgiveness to understand that i should not have tried to make a comparison. there's no comparing atrocities. >> the ann frane frank called i most evil slur we have ever heard. >> on passover no less. >>> david letterman fans are remembering his mother. she passed away at the age of 95. she was lovingly known as dave's mom and she often showed up around mother's day. on thanksgiving she and letterman played guess mom's pies and she covered three olympic games for the show. they included the 1994 winter games when she interviewed then first lady hillary clinton. >> is there anything you or your husband can