So, was that just a consciously-employed straw man on his part, or can he really not tell the difference between criticizing someone's action and expressing a wish to prevent it by force?
A common dogmatist tactic. Crticize an action and they extrapolate a desire to use the government to enforce or suppress said action. They are so accustomed to outsourcing morality that they assume that is the way of everyone else. The concept of "personal accountability" is alien to them.