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Kellyanne Conway Backtracks After Citing ‘Bowling Green Massacre’ That Never Happened to Defend Trump Ban

Kellyanne Conway took to Twitter on Friday, February 3, to clarify her comments about the nonexistent “Bowling Green massacre” she cited in defense of President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration ban.

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During a Thursday, February 2, appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball, Conway, 50, attempted to use the purported event to justify Trump’s decision to suspend admissions for Syrian refugees and bar citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. But as people on Twitter were quick to point out, there was no massacre.

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“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, who served as Trump’s campaign manager and is now counselor to the 70-year-old business mogul, said. “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”

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After facing backlash — and a slew of “alternative facts” jokes on social media — Conway tweeted that she meant to say “terrorists,” not “massacre,” and shared a link to an ABC News article. “On @hardball@NBCNews@MSNBC I meant to say ‘Bowling Green terrorists’ as reported here,” she wrote.

The story that Conway was referring to was about two Iraqi men who lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and were indicted in 2011 on federal terrorism charges. According to the New York Times, one man is serving a life sentence while the other is serving 40 years and a life term of supervised release for using explosive devices against American soldiers in Iraq and also for attempting to send weapons to Al-Qaeda for the purpose of killing U.S. military members. However, there is no mention of a massacre in Bowling Green.

 

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