Yeah, he could so easily have stopped at " the death counts being thrown around all come from the state dept (or embassy in an unofficial capacity iirc) and yet academic are citing it as fact. The toll was correct, but not at the time the claim was made, and that speaks to a genuine problem of just letting western "sources' say a thing, sometimes not even something planned out by the CIA or anything, and just run with it.

But nope he had to go farther than that, double down, and handle it all in the worst manner he could