WATCH: 'Unfortunate accident': Miss. senator blasted for comment on Guard troop shootings

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(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., faced heavy criticism Thursday after characterizing the recent shooting of two National Guard members blocks from the White House, killing one, as an “unfortunate accident.”

Thompson made the comment during a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security titled, “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland.”

Democrats attempted to focus the hearing on deportation efforts of the Trump administration when Thompson made his remark. 

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem responded passionately, “do you think that was an unfortunate accident?” She went on to describe it as a “terrorist attack.” To which Thompson rephrased the shooting as an “unfortunate incident.”

To be sure, the Nov. 26 shooting hasn’t been officially ruled a terrorist attack; however, it is currently under investigation and the alleged shooter, an Afghani national allowed into the U.S. after the Biden administration's deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, faces murder and other felony charges.

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles IV, R-Tenn., also shot back: "That was a murder that took place in DC, it was not an unfortunate incident."