In the immediate aftermath of Pretti's killing, Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller labeled the protester "an assassin" who "tried to murder federal agents." When asked about the comment during a briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt stressed that Trump hadn't used such words.
Leavitt also said she "not heard the president characterize" Pretti as a domestic terrorist, a label Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem used a day earlier.
The White House's seeming retreat comes as a growing number of Republicans call for a deeper investigation into Pretti's killing, a sign that the Trump administration's accounting of events may face bipartisan scrutiny.
Hours before the briefing, a federal judge began hearing arguments on whether she should at least temporarily halt the immigration crackdown in Minnesota.