Washington Post columnist Max Boot made a change to his column on Monday after coming under criticism for stating that the late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was not a coward because “he blew himself up” over being captured by U.S. forces.
“An earlier version of this column included a sentence questioning whether Trump was right to call Baghdadi a coward because he blew himself up,” Boot wrote late Monday in explaining the change. “The line was removed because it unintentionally conveyed the impression that I considered Baghdadi courageous.”
{mosads}Boot also deleted a tweet in which he essentially made the same argument while also challenging President Trump’s unverified claim that al-Baghdadi was “whimpering and crying.”
Boot had come under criticism for his initial wording. Al-Baghdadi killed himself and three of his children when he triggered the explosion.
“The assertion that Baghdadi died as a coward was, in any case, contradicted by the fact that rather than be captured, he blew himself up,” he wrote.
Boot has been a staunch critic of Trump since the former real estate mogul announced his candidacy in June 2015.