When the statement was made, we simply lacked the manufactured rocket technology to go back to the moon. It doesn't in any way imply we lost the technological capability or the technology base. It simply means we don't currently have the specific object to deliver us there. If everyone stopped making buses and someone said, "we no longer have the technology to delivery 100 people down the road", that doesn't mean we never had buses. Yet this is precisely what so many dishonest people falsely assert it means. There really isn't much of interest on the moon unless we're willing to build a base there and use it to explore other planets. If there isn't a technology nor financial interest to do so the required technology to enable it will simply languish. Which is precisely what has happened. The original moon race was the race to develop heavy lift platforms for nuclear weapons and spy satellites. We have this technology. Given there isn't a need/desire to push further, this is where the technology has settled.