The Pod Save interview was clearly an attempt to try to get out in front of the Jewish Insider story, which was most likely a Republican hatchet job, not a Democratic hatchet job. That's not the type of place they'd leak this to.
The likeliest explanation is that he's a fucking idiot and he's always been a fucking idiot. That's why he was a jarhead in the first place, that's why he and his boys got nazi tattoos they probably thought looked cool as shit, and that's why he's posted a mixture of completely fine and reasonable and very stupid shit all over Reddit (and probably elsewhere online) for the past decade. His politics have probably evolved somewhat but are likely still largely incoherent because he's an idiot, but he figured out how to speak in a register that appeals to liberals and leftists who are looking for someone who seems like they'll actually fight Republicans. I get the appeal and why people are trying to defend him, but this guy ain't it.