[He has an idea of what she's going for, but is going to continue to skirt the edge just to keep his own implications out of it. Call it the benefit of the doubt.]

Well, it... preventing them from being purchased still means they'd have to go somewhere. Or I think we run the risk of, uhm, 'preventing' a lot more from being purchased. Or alive.

[Yes, he does air quotes with 'preventing', as if the tone didn't make it already obvious what he was referring to.]