[Doodleydo]

He was fully aware that the people who need to see what's going on (i.e. general public) would see how it all happened. He could've dropped her in it, but it would've escalated into a full on scrap and either way he would've ended up looking like the person at fault.
He wasn't in the wrong at all, why should he have been made to feel like that? He was obviously giving Rebeckah the chance to fess up herself and at least redeem herself a bit.
The only person at fault at all is that devious little **** rebeckah.