Public figures’ claims of “misspeaking” are inherently suspicious. Most people don’t need to point out a mere typo: these are usually obvious in the moment, and forgiven without explanation. It seems far more common that claims of misspeaking are a kind of bait-and-switch, swapping a major sin—lying, being indefensibly clueless or saying something offensive—for a minor one, a claim of having tripped over the tongue as over a carelessly tied shoelace.
In April, Mr Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, said that not even Hitler had used chemical weapons on his own people. He later apologised—and in an article about the flap in The Hill, a reporter accidentally misidentified Mr Spicer: “When asked to clarify those comments, Hitler misspoke again by saying Hitler did not use gas against his country’s people.” The mistake was online for about 20 minutes before being corrected. Talk about a typo.
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