Did you miss the "quotes" in the headline? The story itself uses quotation marks around the statement in the article itself. It self-evidently quotes her.
In the article, there are no quotation marks around that statement. She may have said it, but the author is being vague. The top points he makes are summaries of what she said, then he switches to quoting her without using quotes.
I searched online and this is the only author that I found who has her quoted as saying that. I would think a statement like that would be all over the media.
Now, she may have said it, but I wont comment on what she said until it is verified.