Maybe... but it’s still a lie and an evasion of the truth. After all, what is a lie but an effort to deceive and mislead?
Of course its a lie. But by his terms he used it may not technically be a lie. We have lawyerspeak orwellian people skirting truth to outright lying to us on tv and press conferences everyday. But they almost never answer directly. Deflection, answering a strawman question theyd rather answer, using explicit terms that give them wiggle room later.