It sounds rhetorical to me.

I hope you feel better for telling your husband what you think. But I really don't think you can dictate his relationship with his young adult son. Plus this seems a bit triangulated - your son talks to you (possibly even in confidence) and you go and tell your husband what he must do because of how you feel about what your son reported. It really does not take your husband into consideration it seems to me. In the situation you describe - I would probably respond more like your husband (not about saying nice things to son - but in general to having A come to me about what B said and expecting me to be different to B than I am because of how upset it makes A that I am me and not someone different)