It's a shame Perry, or apparently anyone around him, couldn't see this as a potential blast from the past and have some safe, perfectly logical explanation all set down and memorized.
You explaining it now just makes me think Perry is stupid.
Honestly I think Perry know he would not have time to properly explain the situation so he just accepted that he was wrong and try to get past it.
In a longer venue, he would be able to properly lay it out, but the debate was all about short sound bites.