Well, I suppose it's possible literally everyone who disagrees with you is "dishonest and abusive." Another possibility is that people honestly do not see it your way. I think the most likely explanation is he expected, and wanted, it to go public so he could do the media circuit and become a cause celebre. In fact, choosing all alt-right figures to do interviews first was probably, in my view, his biggest miscalculation, since it tipped his hand.