EnglishClub ESL Forums

Hello!
Unfortunately I can't provide the exact context, I was half listening to some radio broadcasting, all I distinguished was either that some politician was 'leveled by his own words' or something was 'leveled by this politician own words'. And I frequently come across the verb 'to level' in similiar context.
My question is whether this means that person gave away by his own words something he wanted to keep secret or, may be, he said something strong in the first place and then tried to smooth it down to 'level' it by his own words? Or may be you can use 'level' in both meanings?
Thank you,
Dmitry

My first thought is that it means that the politician was damaged by his words.
In the same sense that a fire "levels" a building. (The fire made the building collapse to the ground).