I happened to catch that. And I had to ask myself, if this isn't an act of terror, how can anything be an act of terror?

Somebody intentionally drove a large vehicle into crowds of people, killing them, and tried to kill more by shooting them to death. As people were celebrating the New Year.

Anybody who says that is not an act of terror is clearly ignorant and thoughtless. Perhaps what they meant is that they didn't think the incident is connected to organized groups of terrorists from overseas, but they should try to communicate more clearly if that's what they meant.

Because, clearly, killing large numbers of people in order to terrorize them and others ... is terrorism. That's what the word means, by the definition of common received meaning.