MSNBC host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki on MSNBC on August 28, 2025

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt used her time on the lectern to fire a shot across the bow at MSNBC host and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki. And Psaki made sure to address it during the latest episode of her MSNBC show "The Briefing."

Leavitt's comments were in response to Psaki's viral comment about "thoughts and prayers" in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the aftermath of the shooting, in which an eight year-old and a ten year-old child were killed and 18 others were injured, Psaki posted a tweet denouncing Republicans' failure to take concrete action on gun violence.

"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," she wrote. "Enough with the thoughts and prayers."

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Following Psaki's comment — which has been viewed more than 12 million times as of Thursday evening — Daily Caller reporter Reagan Reese asked Leavitt what she thought of Psaki's tweet, and asserted she "attacked prayer and pushed gun control." Leavitt piled on, and suggested Psaki was not only attacking prayer, but all Americans who were spiritually inclined.

"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," Leavitt said.

Psaki didn't let the comments slide, and insisted that while she personally believed that prayer was a "powerful source of comfort" for people dealing with tragedy, "prayer alone is not enough to prevent and end the crisis of gun violence in America." She observed that there have already been five school shootings across the U.S. since the start of the school year earlier this month, and that there have been 57 total school shootings since January. And she reminded viewers that she was a parent of two school-aged children.

"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 said. "... 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. And because they're not doing that, frankly, they're not doing enough. And people shouldn't accept they're doing enough."

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Watch Psaki's segment below, or by clicking this link.

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