and, quite frankly, a very large change in the meaning of those statements.
Until he is actually a candidate, not a "potential" candidate. I'm not going to waste my time on it. The earlier "plus" points he got from the initial statement have been rescinded, because he clearly (now) didn't mean what he said (then).
And I'm not going to engage with you one way or the other on this issue. If you'd like, you can invent a position for me and debate it, you've done this before.