The statement is self-vitiating and assumes the very thing in question. Scientific laws, physical forces such as gravity, and the Universe are not "nothing". They are something. He is essential asserting that nothing will create something.
But it is irrational and incoherent to assert, as he does, "there is" when there is nothing.
He could assume that the universe has always existed, but then it is irrational and incoherent to assert, as he does, that the Universe created itself.
Cordially,
A while back he had some “yo-yo” theory to explain the physics present at the beginning of creation...