It really rubs me the wrong way because I can be friends with anyone who is willing to be friends with me.
If he has a freakin problem with them, maybe he should actually try talking to them about it. Maybe if he wasn't so freaking passive aggressive and depressed they wouldn't feel the need to walk on eggshells around him.
You are SPOT ON with the above! He is trying to control their actions by controlling you. He knows it too just by the fact that he started the whole statement by saying "you have a nack of twisting everything I say."
I'm not sure I would even bother with a response back to him.