The headline should reflect that he has since acknowledged that this was a stupid thing to say and that he claims he does not believe it. It is telling to see t

The headline should reflect that he has since acknowledged that this was a stupid thing to say and that he claims he does not believe it. It is telling to see the lengths to which one will go to please the Saudis. First you say something in public to show fealty to the authoritarian then you categorically retract the statement and apologize. Most people will never hear the retraction because most people won’t read the article but those who do business with him will do so, allowing him to save face while losing some little-valued public dignity. The news media plays into this perfectly because they will twist the story to be as clickable as possible; he is not referred to by name but rather by position and his retraction is not in the headline because maximum outrage begets maximum clicks.