.@KellyannePolls says that 2 Iraqi refugees “were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.”
(There was no such massacre.) pic.twitter.com/sD3Nnb5xfE— Joe Sonka (@joesonka) February 3, 2017
Kellyanne Conway may have topped herself during an episode of Chris Matthews’ Hardball in both the spin and alternative-facts departments. The subject, of course, was the Trump immigration ban that has dominated the past seven days. Conway already justified the blocking of refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries by brushing off detainments as inconveniences. On Thursday night, she went further and completely made up a fake terror attack called the “Bowling Green Massacre.” She really said this:
“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. Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”
Well yes, this actually is a revelation to people because the massacre that Conway cites never happened. There is an actual thing called the Massacre Haunted House in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but that’s probably not what she’s talking about, right?
Conway may actually be referencing the 2011 arrests of two Iraqi nationals in Bowling Green, Kentucky after they carried out improvised explosive device (IED) attacks on U.S. soldiers — not in Kentucky but in Iraq. The two men lived in Kentucky for a few years and were indicted on terrorism charges, but they never carried out a massacre in the United States. Anyway, it looks like alternative facts are alive and well.