He was apparently asked by the interviewer
Indeed.
The people who didn't read the article are making fools of themselves.
This is a common problem, BTW. "Joe Politician", during the course of a long interview, responds to many questions. A "journalist" picks ONE of those questions, writes an article about it, and gets an inflammatory headline implying that Joe Politician just stood up, stated one of the many answers to many questions, with no context and without having been asked about it. FReepers then make stupid comments like "who asked you" ...
He SHOULD have said he would never be asked.