MSNBC host Jen Psaki fired back at the White House and other conservative critics who have slammed her for saying “prayer is not freaking enough” in the wake of yet another mass shooting, calling the attacks “bad faith” and an effort to not address the issue of gun violence.
Following this week’s shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota that left two young children dead, a number of Democrats and liberal commentators urged Republicans to move past their standard “thoughts and prayers” response and actually take action when it comes to gun reform.
“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, these kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school, they were in a church,” a visibly emotional Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference right after the shooting.
Psaki, a former White House press secretary under Joe Biden, joined in the anger and frustration by declaring that prayer wouldn’t bring an end to these increasingly common massacres in America.
“Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers does not end school shootings. [P]rayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school,” she tweeted on Wednesday. “Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”
“Why do you feel the need to attack other people for praying when kids were just killed praying?” Vance posted on X in response, adding: “Of all the weird left wing culture wars in the last few years, this is by far the most bizarre. ‘How dare you pray for innocent people in the midst of tragedy?!’ What are you even talking about?”
The vice president would continue his performative outrage over Psaki’s remarks in a Fox News interview Thursday, telling pro-Trump host Will Cain that “something very wrong” has gone on “inside [the] soul” of Democrats. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also took the opportunity to take a personal swipe at her predecessor.
“I saw the comments of Ms. Psaki and frankly I think they’re incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to the tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country who believe in the power of prayer, who believe that prayer works,” she fumed during Thursday’s press briefing.
Psaki addressed the criticism head-on during a Thursday night segment of “Jen’s Version,” a regular feature on her MSNBC primetime show in which she responds to questions asked during that day’s White House briefing.
“So the White House decided to hold a press briefing today. What a day to hold a briefing. One where, believe it or not, I came up personally,” she noted.
After first reacting to a conservative YouTuber’s remarks that featured him saying “any rational person knows it’s not a gun thing,” snarking that “it feels like someone in the White House may have written that question for you,” Psaki then aired the exchange that centered around her “prayer” critique.
“Democrats, including former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, attacked prayer and pushed gun control in the aftermath of yesterday’s shooting. What’s the White House’s response to their comments?” The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese asked Leavitt.
“Well, it’s quite a phrasing of your question there. But here’s the thing, prayer is a powerful source of comfort for so many people around the world during difficult times, including me,” Psaki responded. “I completely feel that way. And what I said yesterday and will say again now, though, is that prayer alone is not enough to prevent and end the crisis of gun violence in America. It’s not.”
The former White House spokesperson went on to state that “we live in a country where there are more guns than people,” adding that there have already been five school shootings in August and 57 since January. “And the fact that parents like me have to worry every day about whether or not our kids are safe at school is what we should be talking about,” Psaki declared.
“So the issue I raised yesterday and I will raise again today and I will not stop raising, is that people in power – like, say, people in the White House, who are using their platforms to do anything other than call for action for sensible gun safety measures, they’re doing anything else, like attacking me, which is a waste of time – they’re doing anything but saying what should be done to help prevent tragedies like the shooting in Minneapolis,” she continued. “And because they’re not doing that, frankly, they’re not doing enough. And people shouldn’t accept they’re doing enough.”
Saying that “instead of focusing on the bad faith back and forth,” Psaki called on reporters to press the White House on why “it doesn’t support universal background checks for gun sales when more than 80 percent of the country supports them,” She also urged the press to ask the administration why it isn’t trying to make it harder for mentally ill people to purchase firearms or ban assault weapons when the majority of the country backs those measures as well.
“Look, to solve this long epidemic of violence requires action. And when kids in pews who are praying are shot, to quote the statement from Sisters of Mercy on the Minnesota Catholic school shooting, our response can no longer be thoughts and prayers alone,” Psaki concluded. “Even Pope Leo, then a cardinal, I will note, retweeted Senator Chris Murphy in 2017, saying, ‘Your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers.’ I would retweet that too, and continue to.”
