MSNBC’s Jen Psaki Loses It Crying in Middle of Searing Mass Shooting Commentary

MSNBC host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki broke down crying in the middle of a searing commentary on the latest gun massacre to befall U.S. children, this time at a Minneapolis church.

A mass shooter shot through the windows of Annunciation Roman Catholic church in Minneapolis on Wednesday, killing two children, ages 8 and 10, and injuring 17 others. The shooter, later identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, took their own life.

On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, the host opened her show by recapping the story and bitterly lamenting the familiar contours of gun violence debates in the country. But Psaki, who has children around the same ages as those who were slain, was overcome as she talked about the toll shootings take on families:

JEN PSAKI: I have been thinking, as I’m sure everybody who has consumed this today has been doing as well, about my kids who happen to be about the same ages as the two who were killed, about sending them off to school this morning.

I’ve been thinking about their friends and their teachers, about all of the parents, about all the grandparents out there navigating the return to school.

And all they should be hoping to do is have someone to sit with at lunch or someone to play with on the playground.

They should be waiting to hear an update when they get home. And that is not what these parents at the school experience today.

Sorry, this is a tough one. Having your child killed while they are sitting in a pew for a morning prayer service is not what any parent should have to worry about.

And I have felt a mixture of anger, a lot of anger, and emotional exhaustion about this today as I’m sure many of you have, because we have been here so many times. So many times!

And yet again, like clockwork, half of the politicians in our country have little more to offer than thoughts and prayers. That is all they are offering.

“Join us all, join all of us in praying for the victims” was Vice President JD Vance’s response today. That’s what he said. That’s it.

“Please join me in praying for everyone involved,” Trump wrote.

We have seen this play out over and over again. There is a shooting, then come the thoughts and prayers, and then comes the attempt to shift the focus. This is what always happens.

You’re going to start seeing narratives, you’re already seeing them, they’re already out there, about how the shooter was trans. You’re gonna see narratives about how the shooter appeared to be anti-Trump and anti-Semitic, and clearly was in the midst of a mental health crisis. There’s no question about that.

But here’s the thing. There are trans people all over the world. There are anti-Semitic people, unfortunately, all over world, and people filled with plenty of political hate all over the world, and mental health issues are not unique to the United States, and yes, we should do more to address them.

But it’s also an issue all over the world.

But this is the only country where shootings like this one happen this often. The United States not only has the highest rate of gun violence of any country in the world.

It’s become a leading cause of death for young people and teenagers in this country. That should make everybody angry.

Watch the full commentary above via MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki.

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