Your "source" The Sun, wouldn't even type out what he said, however, so what does that tell you?
" I am eager to hear, n-- hear, next..." - that's how they typed it out in the article.
Also, it came up as the n word in closed captioning. You can't spin your way out of this.
It tells me that he said it. He's a stuttering old man with dementia, so yes, he's gonna say things that we're all going to say "WTF does that mean?".