Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin released a video statement today apologizing for comparing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s push to pass a gun control law to Hitler and Mussolini.

“Somtimes in the heat of the moment you say things that you regret and that’s what happened here at a press conference they were having in Albany talking about transparence in government,” McLaughlin said in a YouTube video released this afternoon. “I made an analogy I should not have made and I’m very, very sorry about that. I called the governor to apologize, he did not deserve that, that was not fair of me to do.”

He added, “Just like you I’m human and I make mistakes.”

McLaughlin earlier this morning at a news conference unveiling a proposal to limit the use of messages of necessity said that “Hitler would be proud, Mussolini would be produ” of the aggressive push by Cuomo on his gun control law.

McLaughlin was even given the chance to walk the statement back at the time, but wouldn’t.

“I said it, didn’t I?” he responded when asked if he felt the comparison was appropriate.

The comment was followed by a serious of comdemnations from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Albany, along with the Anti-Defamation League.

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