This New Yorker article is dated Dec 20. The tweets from the ‘stalking’ thread were posted Dec 21. Not defending Nintendo for anything here, just pointing out this theoretical ‘PR spin’ timeline doesn’t add up.
Agreed, I personally don't think this interview had anything to do with trying to put out that fire. Not even really convinced Nintendo cares all that much about the leak, tbh, pretty much nobody I know outside of the HN crowd even heard about it.