His “retraction” is a lie. He’s suggesting that he never suggested that he had accessed 70,000 records, and that the mdeia screwed up.
He did suggest that he had accessed 70,000 records.
Here he is on Fox News, and in response to the reporter’s question
You say you can access 70,000 records […] within 4 minutes [without hacking the site]
he goes on to use mumbo-jumbo to say how he did it, and never once says that he did not, actually, access 70,000 records.