Kellyanne Conway claimed that she “misspoke one word” and made an “honest mistake” when she referred to the “Bowling Green massacre,” a nonexistent terrorist attack, while defending President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration during an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
But Conway’s conversation with Matthews on Feb. 3 was not the first time she talked about the made up attack, according to Cosmopolitan. The magazine revealed on Monday that the counselor to the President mentioned the “Bowling Green massacre” during a Jan. 29 interview while discussing enhanced security in the U.S. after two men were arrested for plotting to send money and weapons to Al-Qaida in Iraq in 2011. The men, Waad Ramadan Alwin and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, entered the U.S. in 2009 as refugees and settled in Bowling Green.
While speaking with Cosmopolitan, Conway claimed President Barack Obama ordered a temporary “ban on Iraqi refugees” after the “Bowling Green massacre.” Her quotes were not used in two stories published about her.
According to Cosmopolitan, Conway said of Obama: “He did, it’s a fact. Why did he do that? He did that for exactly the same reasons. He did that because two Iraqi nationals came to this country, joined ISIS, traveled back to the Middle East to get trained and refine their terrorism skills, and come back here, and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre of taking innocent soldiers’ lives away.”
Conway’s comments to both MSNBC and Cosmopolitan are misleading. The Obama administration did not announce a formal ban on Iraqi refugees in 2011, although there was an enhanced security process for delaying visa applications and the U.S. saw a steep decline of refugees at the time.
News networks have debated in recent weeks about whether Conway should be invited on cable programs because of this kind of misinformation. On Sunday, CNN passed on having her appear on State of the Union.
. @KellyannePolls was offered to SOTU on Sunday by the White House. We passed. Those are the facts.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 6, 2017
Conway, however, denies that CNN decided not to have her on, claiming she had family obligations.
