Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb Make Emotional Plea After Nashville School Shooting

The co-anchors spoke about the tragic events on the 'Today' show.

Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb are speaking out about the Nashville school shooting. 

The 'Today' show hosts joined a plethora of other public figures and celebrities to speak out against the deadly shooting at Nashville's Covenant School killed six people, including three innocent children.

Hager and Kotb, who are both mothers, made an impassioned plea, begging for change when it comes to keeping children safe and protected in learning spaces that should be "the safest."

Kotb started the Today With Hoda and Jenna segment by stating, "this is one of those mornings that you begin with a real heavy heart. You and I have jobs that we do, we are journalists, we interview people, but I think there are certain times where you're like, you know, for a minute I just want to take my journalism cap off and be a mother."

Kotb is a mom to two daughters—3-year-old Hope and 6-year-old Haley—while Hager is a mom of three, including her 3-year-old son, Hal, 7-year-old daughter, Poppy, and 9-year-old daughter, Mila. 

"As you mentioned – we are moms. I have a friend in Nashville so I knew of one of the little girls who was nine, who went to school yesterday and didn't get to come home," Hager revealed. 

"So when Henry came home from work I said 'God, did you see this?' And I had to whisper because I have a nine-year-old," she continued while choking back tears. "The thought that any of us could send our children on the buses or walking or drop them off at carpool and not get to hug them again is beyond," she said.

"And as a book lover, I just have to say – and my mom has said this as a librarian – we're worried about giving our kids Judy Bloom and other books that are important to the history, to the fabric of our country, and we're not worried about sending our kids to schools where they're not safe?" Hager added.

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Kotb went on to tell a story about a mother losing sight of her child while on vacation and the panic that set in while she was looking for them. The anchor related it to parents arriving at a school after they heard the news of a shooting and panicking about finding their children. 

She went on to say that she also has a friend who lives in Nashville who told her that mothers were banging on school buses trying to find their children. "To imagine that these young little tiny children are in school sitting there, I mean I won't let my kids cross the street, I squeeze their hands," she said before stating that she is naturally very protective of her kids.

"But we can't protect them at the place they're most safe – where they should be the safest," Hager pleaded. 

Many other celebrities shared their thoughts on the school shooting, including Melissa Joan Hart and Niecy Nash–who both opened up about the incident hitting close to home.