Yes definitely, they were trying to sabotage with that line of questioning. I even think it is admirable that he stuck to his guns and told the truth, even though it ran the risk of making him unpopular. But, if I were him, I would have lied. People don't want to hear the truth anyways, they want the politician to tell them what they want to hear... Politician tells people what they want to hear, not what he really thinks. It gets him elected and then he does whatever he wants. This is a tried and true method that has been proven to work over and over again.