Kellyanne Conway Cites 'Bowling Green Massacre' That Never Was to Defend Trump Travel Ban
The president's counselor made the comments during an interview.
— -- Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, attempted to clarify a statement she made in an interview Thursday on MSNBC, tweeting this morning that she meant to say "Bowling Green terrorists" instead of "Bowling Green massacre."
While speaking Thursday night with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Conway referenced the "Bowling Green Massacre" while discussing a ban the Obama administration implemented in 2011 that is similar to Trump's recently-signed executive order temporarily halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations.
"I bet it's brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre," Conway told Matthews. ""Most people don't know that because it didn't get covered."
Matthews didn't stop to ask Conway to elaborate on the so-called massacre, but his viewers didn't miss a beat.
Following the primetime interview, the Twittersphere lit up with comments poking fun at Conway and the apparently fictional "massacre."
There is no documented event referred to as "The Bowling Green Massacre."
Some social media users jokingly suggested that Conway was confused with the haunted house attraction in Bowling Green, Kentucky, called "The Massacre Haunted House."
The only connection Bowling Green has with anything terror- or refugee-related, pertains to a 2013 ABC News report about two Iraqi refugees who plotted to attack Americans, and who later admitted in court to attacking U.S. soldiers in Iraq. They lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Federal officials told ABC News as a result of the Bowling Green case, the State Department did not process Iraqi refugees for six months in 2011.