After the tragic shooting at a Catholic school church in Minneapolis on Wednesday which left two children dead and 18 people injured, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, wrote on social media: “Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers does not end school shootings. prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded by attacking Psaki and calling her comments “disrespectful.” Leavitt said: “It’s utterly disrespectful to deride the power of prayer in this country.”
Psaki replied to Leavitt, “Prayer is a powerful source of comfort for so many people around the world during difficult times, including me.”
She added: “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.”
Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard pushed Leavitt’s criticism further on social media by accusing Psaki (and “people like her”) of having “such a spontaneous visceral negative reaction to those who are praying to God…Because they do not believe in God or His love. Their response is rooted in their hatred of God.”
Gabbard added: “Those like @jenpsaki and @Jacob_Frey who criticize prayers in the wake of the Minneapolis tragedy are expressing the same anti-God sentiment that motivated the shooter— he aimed his wrath at God by trying to stop people with his bullets from praying to God.”
As the father of Jaime, who was murdered in the Parkland shooting, let me make this simple for you @TulsiGabbard. I agree with everything @jrpsaki was saying, FULL STOP!!! Why? Thoughts and prayers do not change my reality Jaime's empty bedroom, missed life milestones and… pic.twitter.com/d9Qw8VnZUL
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) August 30, 2025
Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jaime Guttenberg, a 14-year-old who was murdered in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, where 17 people were killed and 18 others injured, responded to Gabbard.
Guttenberg wrote: “As the father of Jaime, who was murdered in the Parkland shooting, let me make this simple for you @TulsiGabbard. I agree with everything @jrpsaki was saying, FULL STOP!!! Why? Thoughts and prayers do not change my reality Jaime’s empty bedroom, missed life milestones and birthdays, or the fact that I visit my forever 14 daughter at the cemetery. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers and love from well meaning people, but that is not you. I despise people like you who use the idea of ‘thoughts and prayers’ to hide from the reality that you have always done nothing when it comes to gun violence and will always do nothing. When people like you say ‘thoughts and prayers’ all that I hear is you saying that is all you have and let’s move on. The idea that you would suggest that people like me, a victim of a mass shooting, hate God because we despise you and your fake reactions just confirms that you are a sick person who will use God and religion to serve your own evil purposes. You are despicable to the core Tulsi.”
Note: In response to Leavitt, Psaki also quoted a statement from the Catholic group Sisters of Mercy on the Minneapolis shooting: “Our response can no longer be ‘thoughts and prayers’ alone.”
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