His statement says he is stepping down due to misinterpretations and misunderstandings (AKA he stands by his statements), which IMO means he was given the ultim

His statement says he is stepping down due to misinterpretations and misunderstandings (AKA he stands by his statements), which IMO means he was given the ultimatum of "your job or your opinion" aka if he wanted to stay he would need to repudiate the things he said, and he likely chose to stand by his interpretation of the discussion and resign.