Yes he “Misspoke”.
It reminds me of that delightful turn of phrase the Clinton administration made so popular: “mistakes were made”. Never “I made a mistake”, just that vague subject-less mantra.
That "vague, subject-less mantra" is technically known as "passive voice."
My high school English teacher strictly limited its use in our writings for his class assignments, and made it his policy to flunk any paper in which it appeared more than three times.