I think he wishes he hadn't said it.
And it is delightful that he should be inconvenienced in some small way to give him an idea of what his other lies and false claims do to his victims.
If he did not say it, and it will take more than a retraction from a single source to be convincing, then so be it. that will not resolve the issue of whether or not he in fact lying. There is plenty of other evidence that he is in fact a liar about his ethnic background.
Ed