And he trips and stumbles right out of the gate
You skipped quoting the next sentence. He says this causes canonical problems that will need to be sorted out. In other words, it’s similar to the position adopted by +Lefebvre where he was inching toward sedevacantism but kept saying that it will have to be sorted out later. This was in line with what he said earlier when asked about Bennyvacantism.
I read this statement as his saying that it’s possible the See is vacant. That might be why it took him so long to respond ... as I speculated before. He was clearly grappling with these “canonical implications” of a non-Catholic pope. Framing it this way implies that he’s probably pondering the Cajetan and John of St. Thomas position vs. Bellarmine.
When a pope is a manifest heretic, SOMEONE has to be the first to call it out. Someone has to get the ball rolling toward universal recognition of this fact. His going sedevacantist would create extreme momentum towards that, so he’s afraid to take that first step. I’ll write more when I’m not typing on my phone.
He also felt the need to release a video to address the ghostwriting accusation.