WorldNetDaily started its coverage of a mass shooting at a Catholic church in Minnesota with a fairly standard article by Joe Kovacs. But when some people pointed out the meaninglessness of calling for “thoughts and prayers” after such a mass shooting, WND got mad. An anonymously written Aug. 27 article complained:
In the wake of the deadly Catholic church shooting in Minneapolis Wednesday, the city’s mayor and other Democrats are ridiculing the notion of sending “thoughts and prayers” to the two child victims’ families.
First Minneapolis Democrat [sic] Mayor Jacob Frey, speaking to media after the attack at Annunciation Catholic School, angrily discounted the value of prayer in the aftermath of the tragedy, tying in the fact the children shot were literally praying in the church as they were killed.
Echoing their party’s reaction to past school shootings, other Democrats are seconding Frey’s remarks, including former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
She posted to X: “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.”
Interestingly, WND had no response to that complaint. Then it turned out the shooter had a transgender identity, which kicked WND into full hateful overdrive. Cue an Aug. 27 article by Kovacs:
The gunman in a horrific shooting at a Catholic church and school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killing at least two children and injuring 17 others has been identified as a transgender individual Robin Westman, formerly known as Robert Westman.
Westman opened fire through the stained glass windows of Annunciation Catholic Church during a back-to-school Mass filled with children 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. The assailant died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the back of the church.
[…]A series of videos linked to Westman have been posted online, including the individual holding weapons and ammunition marked with disturbing messages including: “Kill Donald Trump,” “For the children,” and “Where is your God?”
Kovacs didn’t mention that Westman had also written on the rifle “Thank God for Breivik” — a reference to Anders Breivik, who murdered dozens of people in Norway in 2011 and whose manifesto referenced WND articles six times.
Kovacs went on to play the transgender-psychopath card:
Two years ago, as WorldNetDaily reported, another high-profile transgender shooting at a Christian school in Tennessee made national headlines.
On March 27, 2023, shooter Audrey Hale, a woman identifying as a man, entered The Covenant School in Nashville and killed three nine-year-old students and three adults: an administrator, substitute teacher, and a custodian.
WND was obsessed in getting a hold of Hale’s alleged manifesto simply because of the transgender factor. By contrast, it was much less interested in the manifesto of Dylann Roof, who killed nine black people in a South Carolina church in 2015 — perhaps because Roof’s views largely mirrored those promoted by WND.
The transgender-killer narrative was further hyped in another anonymously written article:
With news breaking that the killer of two Minneapolis children who sat in church pews praying during Mass was transgender – a man identifying as a woman – the issue of transgender mental illness and violence has quickly moved front and center in the media and online.
In fact, a term trending now on X is “trans terror,” with people pointing out the trend in deadly violence among young people who identify with their non-biological sex.
Asked commentator Todd Starnes, “How many more Christians must die at the hands of transgender terrorists?”
[…]Many commentators point out the problem of encouraging and celebrating people who “transition” when there are serious mental and physical health risks to such action.
No evidence was offered that gender transition causes anyone to become a mass shooter.
After an anonymously written article hyping FBI director Kash Patel’s declaration that the shooting was “domestic terrorism,” WND finally responded to the thoughts-and-prayers argument in an Aug. 29 article by Bob Unruh:
A Minnesota bishop has scolded the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, for his mockery of Christianity after a school shooting at a Catholic school that left two students dead and more than a dozen others injured.
A report from Fox News explains the rebuke.
Frey openly mocked those who prayed for the students, or those who called for prayer, after the tragedy, with, “Don’t say this is about thoughts and prayers.”
Which prompted Bishop Robert Barron to explain, “Catholics don’t think that prayer magically protects them from all suffering. After all, Jesus prayed fervently from the cross on which he was dying.”
Of course, Frey wasn’t “mocking” prayer — he was criticizing those who offer only that without also working to reduce mass shootings.
An anonymously written Aug. 29 article got snippy over the gender of the shooter:
In the immediate aftermath of a school shooting in Minneapolis this week, when a man shot and killed two children and injured more than a dozen more, reporters were unclear on a lot of details.
But they weren’t about to let an assumption about the gender of the man who also died in the attack stand.
In a report posted by the New York Post, Fox News reported it was Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who was being interviewed by Aisla Chang of National Public Radio.
The senator referenced the shooter who attacked Annunciation Catholic School as “he.”
Chang immediately jumped in, “And just a point of clarification, Sen. Klobuchar referenced the shooter as ‘he.’ Although police have identified a suspect, it’s still unclear at this time what that person’s gender is or how they identify.”
She claimed the gender was “unclear.”
In fact, police have identified the dead attacker as Robert Westman, 23, who changed his name to Robin as a juvenile because he wanted to identify as female.
Reports also have confirmed that he indicated a desire to leave the transgender lifestyle choice, and expressed regret that he ever brainwashed himself.
The article offered no evidence that being transgender is a “lifestyle choice” or that one becomes transgender through “brainwashing.”