You're the one without integrity. He was speaking in a hypothetical role as a government official, not as a journalist. In fact, he was making a very socialist

You're the one without integrity. He was speaking in a hypothetical role as a government official, not as a journalist. In fact, he was making a very socialist / populist point that few on the Left would be able to disagree with. That is, the point was about the national necessity of protecting a job base for a immense mass of people. Protecting it from robot capitalism.