Playing 'Gotcha!" with Mike Pompeo's slip of the tongue is dirty pool.

60 Minutes recently charged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with "trying to resurrect a discredited theory" that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is man-made.

Baloney.

Here is the exchange between Sec. Pompeo and Martha Radatz on ABC's This Week on May 3:

RADDATZ: Do you believe it was manmade or genetically modified?

POMPEO: Look, the best experts so far seem to think it was manmade. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point.

RADDATZ: Your -- your Office of the [director of national intelligence] DNI says the consensus, the scientific consensus was not manmade or genetically modified.

POMPEO: That's right. I -- I -- I agree with that. Yes. I've -- I've seen their analysis. I've seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate at this point.

RADDATZ: OK, so just to be clear, you do not think it was manmade or genetically modified?

POMPEO: I've seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they've got it wrong.

No, Sec. Pompeo did not "try to have it both ways," as Scott Pelly claimed on 60 Minutes. Nor did he "walk back" what he had just said. The Secretary of State tripped over his tongue in trying to say exactly the opposite of what came out. He even cited "the best experts," who have in fact consistently said that the virus was not manmade, and said that he had no reason to disagree with them.

When Raddatz pointed out that in fact, the scientific consensus is that it was not manmade, Sec. Pompeo became momentarily confused. If there was a thought balloon over his head, like in a cartoon, it would have read, "Didn't I just say that?" Well, no, in fact, he hadn't. Whether he realized that or not, he certainly realized that Raddatz was unclear about his answer, so he simply clarified it. Yes, he'd seen the summary. Yes, he was aware of what the experts said. And yes, he agreed with it.

An honest mistake such as anyone might make. A slip of the tongue. The Trump administration tries quite hard and quite often to confuse and to deceive. I get that. But the media only assist in their getting away with it when they take what was obviously a momentary and very human lapse in the attention the Secretary was giving to his choice of words and try to make something of it other than what it very obviously was.