California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom mocked prayer on Thursday after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the power and importance of prayer for people of faith.
During the White House press briefing, Leavitt blasted former White House Press Secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki for saying that “prayer is not freaking enough. … Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”
“I saw the comments of my predecessor, 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, and who believe that in a time of mourning like this when beautiful young children were killed while praying a church, it’s utterly disrespectful to deride the power of prayer in this country,” Leavitt said.
Newsom commented on Leavitt’s remarks, writing on X, “These children were literally praying as they got shot at.”
The shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman — who identified as transgender — opened fire at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, killing two children and wounding over a dozen more. Westman fired upon students and staff at the school while they were holding morning Mass.
Before going on a shooting rampage, the trans-identifying gunman raged against Catholics and Jews and also called for violence against President Donald Trump, according to FBI Director Kash Patel, who cited some of Westman’s writings. In one YouTube video that was posted just hours before the shooting and connected to the gunman, phrases such as “Where is your God?” and “6 million wasn’t enough” — an apparent reference to the Holocaust — were written on firearms.
“As we continue to investigate yesterday’s barbaric attack from Robert Westman, the male subject, our teams have gathered information and evidence demonstrating this was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology,” Patel said.
Newsom and Psaki weren’t the only Democrats to criticize prayer following the deadly shooting. During a press conference after the shooting, Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey made a statement similar to what Newsom said.
“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,” Frey said.
Earlier on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said it was “shocking” to see Democrats “attack the idea of prayer in response to a tragedy.”
“Literally no one thinks prayer is a substitute for action,” Vance added. “We pray because our hearts are broken and we believe that God is listening.”