He's a politician if I've ever seen one.
Now he says the original prediction has happened - it wasn't quite as spectacular as expected, but judgement has arrived. We've all been judged.
October is the confirmation date, which he had already mentioned before, in passing, as the day we poor saps left behind were going to get it.
He figures there's still some money to be squeezed.
He might also have been concerned about avoiding a lynch mob from forming.
And if you ask me, his response was planned all along, right down to the "I'm flabbergasted" part.