No, but he was not forgetting about himself, either; he goes on to say that the least in the kingdom of heaven are greater than John, and he further indicates that he is specifically comparing John to the prophetic figures of the OT ("the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John").
And now back to work—been answering posts on this thread for four hours now, so that’ll be all from me for a while. Peace out.
Obviously, Jesus was excluding Himself from that statement. I really doubt that anyone would argue otherwise, certainly not John the Baptist.
To exclude Mary from that statement is a heroic assumption. In a sense, Mary is part of the prophetic line as the "Virgin with Child." Certainly, Mary's Song in response to Elizabeth's proclamation contained prophetic elements. It would be far more logical to include Mary with the prophets than it would be to exclude her.
he goes on to say that the least in the kingdom of heaven are greater than John
The fact that Jesus said that John was less than the least in heaven is irrelevant here. Both John and Mary were on earth.
("the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John").
This expression really shows what honor that Jesus was bestowing on John. Many people identified Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah including Mary, Elizabeth, Anna, Simeon, etc. but the proclamation that really mattered was John's. John was special among prophets because he was given the authority to say "That's Him." Obviously, both John and Mary had important roles but contrary to Marian Dogma, it seems Scripture assigned John a higher role. Do not forget Luke 11:27-28 when Jesus Himself redirected the focus of the woman who tried to heap praise on Mary.