I’m the greatest living being on the planet. Then I withdraw that assertion.

[legin]

e.g.

“A political row has broken out in the UK over the adequacy of British troops' equipment, after Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch Brown told a reporter that "we definitely don't have enough helicopters".

Lord Malloch Brown later withdrew his remarks.”

It seems that there is a species of statements that I was unaware of.
‘The sky is blue’ becomes ‘the sky is blue but I didn’t say that’.

I could be that there is a difference of meaning in the way you amend the statement.
Lord Malloch Brown ‘withdrew’ the remark. He could of ‘denied he said it’, maybe that is different, I don’t know.

[legin]

1. A thought...

It would tend to suggest that ‘statements of fact’ are not simply true or false, but that things are ‘percentage-ly true or false’.
I can change how much personal responsibility I wish to assign to a statement, and thus how much weight to give to that statement, by changing the wording on how I take the statement back. I can retract it, say I was misquoted, withdraw it, deny I said it, etc. If I have a spokesperson amend my statement then that changes the percentage to.
“A spokesperson for Lord Malloch Brown said he withdrew his remarks” means something different from the above.

Also by retracting a statement of fact one also removes the ‘Invitation to Falsify’.

[legin]

2. It is also a way of putting an idea out there in a strong way.

‘The sky is pink with green stripes’ is better than ‘I think the sky is pink with green stripes’.

(I retract my original assertion by the way).