The White House used the T-word – terrorism – to describe on Tuesday the attack outside the "Draw Muhammad" contest that left one officer injured and the two gunmen dead.
Press secretary John Earnest also said federal authorities are still investigating the assault to determine if ISIS or other another known terror group was really involved, directly or indirectly.
ISIS, meanwhile, took responsibility for the attack during a Tuesday morning radio broadcast, vowing to commit further acts of terror on American soil, WND previously reported. Federal authorities haven't confirmed that – but in a statement from the White House, Earnest jumped the investigative gun and deemed the attack based on terror.
In praising law enforcement in Garland, Earnest said police "foil[ed] what appears to be an attempted terrorist attack," Earnest said, adding the White House was still awaiting official notice from intelligence to confirm if ISIS had been involved.
He also tossed aside criticisms about the nature of the event and whether it was sensible to hold a contest to draw the prophet, despite Muslims' objections.
"There is no expression, however offensive, that justified an act of terrorism or even an act of violence," he said, the Hill reported.
Obama has been criticized in past years for failing to use the word "terrorism" or "terrorist" in a timely manner, especially in conjunction with the word "Islamic." The New York Times recently reported on his vocabulary habits, speaking of the president's "remarkable consistency" to instead put forth "bland, generic terms over anything that explicitly connects attacks or plots to Islam," the paper wrote, in a February piece.