If you want to be pedantic, why didn't you mention the article title "Says" instead of "Said"?
This is the kind of false-correction that kills instead of invites discussion, as it has really nothing to do with the article, nor what the comment was adding to it. They were maintaining the article's tense. Just like the author did when they wrote the title with "says" even though it was past tense by then, too.
A non-cynical person would easily understand "He would know Vladimir Putin is/was a bigger threat than Isis, at the time he said so" without fear of being completely derailed from all semblance of meaning and intent.
