Today, Americans are paying mock tribute to the Bowling Green massacre, the tragedy that never was.
White House senior adviserKellyanne Conway told “Hardball’s” Chris Matthews on Friday morning that two Iraqis masterminded the Bowling Green massacre, an attack on American soil, which served to bolster her argument in support of the Trump administration’s immigrant travel ban.
.@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
“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 were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” Conway told Matthews. “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.” If you’re scratching your head wondering if you missed that day in history class, you’re not missing anything. The Bowling Green massacre never happened.
Conway is right about two things:
1. It is indeed brand new information, because the Bowling Green massacrenever happened.
2. The event did not get coverage by the media, because the Bowling Green massacre never happened.
Kellyanne Conway is right. We did not cover the Bowling Green massacre — because it never happened https://t.co/ROp7TQeEjj pic.twitter.com/WduiA3tJKx
— CNN (@CNN) February 3, 2017
Two Iraqi nationalswere arrested in Kentucky during the Obama White House and the news was covered by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, PBS NewsHour,Foreign Policy, theWall Street Journal, theWashington Postand ABC News. “Two Iraqi citizens living in Bowling Green, Ky., who admitted using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and who attempted to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) for the purpose of killing U.S. soldiers, were sentenced today to serve federal prison terms by Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky,” the DOJ said in a 2013statement. Conway later amended her statement via Twitter, saying she meant to say “terrorists,” not “massacre.”
On @hardball @NBCNews @MSNBC I meant to say “Bowling Green terrorists” as reported here:
https://t.co/nB5SwIEoYI— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
And Conway continued to defend her supporting alternative fact.
The real lessons from Bowling Green. Who will cover? Who will care? https://t.co/gX9RNoXVUa
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
Yep. Everyone should read the ABC News article. On my twitter feed. Instead of creating memes & phony outrage. It’s a dangerous world. https://t.co/qdISs5yQzR
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
Twitter had some fun with the alternative news (see the gallery above) and New Yorkers created their own memorial in Lower Manhattan (watch the video below).
Bowling Green https://t.co/GZU7EPXKw5
— Kimberly M. Aquilina (@KimESTAqui) February 3, 2017