New York Times columnist Bret Stephens compared the U.S. secretary of state to former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday, only to issue an apology hours later.
Stephens apologized on Twitter after a user praised his comments.
Wrongly, @paulcadario. I let rhetorical exuberance get the better of me. RT in no way PP, not remotely or by analogy. I apologize. (BLS) https://t.co/7ST1AUrLwO
— Bret Stephens (@BretStephensNYT) August 22, 2017
The columnist also compared Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to former Chinese Communist dictator Mao Zedong, before settling on Pol Pot.
According to Stephen’s own publication, Pot is believed to be responsible for the death of nearly 2 million people. Mao has also been tagged with the death of at least 50 million people.
“Tillerson seems to be of a kind of Maoist school, maybe it’s Pol Pot,” Stephens said. Co-host Joe Scarborough nervously laughed, causing Stephen to walk back his statement. “I went a little far with Pol Pot,” he said on set, before taking to Twitter to make the apology official.
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