Bowling Green massacre

Kellyanne Conway in 2017

On January 29, 2017, in an interview with Cosmopolitan, Conway said that Obama had limited Iraqi immigration 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".[13][14]

On the same day, in a brief interview with TMZ, Conway stated: "He did that because, I assume, there were two Iraqis who came here, got radicalized, joined ISIS, and then were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green attack on our brave soldiers."[15][14]

Three days later, on February 2, in an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Conway described the "Bowling Green massacre" as an attack of terrorism carried out within the United States by refugees.[16] Conway said:

I bet, there was very little coverage ‍—‌ 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. I mean, most people don't know that because it didn't get covered.[16][12]

Although the interviews with Cosmopolitan and TMZ were conducted first, they did not become public until after the MSNBC interview aired.

On February 3, the day after her MSNBC interview, Conway said she misspoke and that she meant to use the term "Bowling Green terrorists" instead of "Bowling Green massacre",[17] referring to the two Iraqi men arrested in 2011.[2] The Washington Post subsequently mentioned previous statements by Conway where she had made reference to the nonexistent massacre, indicating that "now she doesn't appear to have misspoken at all; she seems to have believed that the Bowling Green massacre was a real thing."[18]

Conway's statement that the men became "radicalized" in the United States was found to be incorrect, as they had been radicalized outside of the country.[13] Conway's statement that President Obama "had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program" was misleading, as the Obama administration move was not a formal ban.[19] Contrary to Conway's claims, there is no evidence that the men had traveled back to the Middle East[13] or had any contact with ISIS after being admitted to the United States. Neither of the two was ever charged with plotting attacks inside the United States.[5]

Conway, in her February 3 statement, said that there was no coverage of the Bowling Green investigation, which she intended to refer to.[20] However, there were approximately 90 news articles that covered the arrest and charges at the time.[20] Conway's February 3 statement cited an example of that coverage, without acknowledging that her claim that "it didn't get covered" was also incorrect.[3]

On February 5, CNN declined an interview with Conway, partly because of "serious questions about her credibility" and partly because CNN could not get Mike Pence, whom the administration made available to all the other major Sunday shows.[21][22] That day, she said in a text exchange, "Frankly they were terrorists in Bowling Green but their massacre took place in Iraq."[13] Two days later, she was a guest on CNN, interviewed on air by Jake Tapper. In the interview, Conway apologized for repeatedly referencing a "Bowling Green massacre" that did not happen.[22][23]

In a March 2017 interview with New York, Conway said she intended to say "Bowling Green masterminds" rather than "Bowling Green massacre", in reference to "would-be terrorists who were apprehended before they staged an attack".[24]

Man holding satirical sign at protest in San Francisco, February 2017

The video clip of Conway's "massacre" statement went viral online,[3] with the phrase becoming the top trending topic on Twitter.[20][25] Some Twitter users wrote that, despite Conway's clarification, substituting "terrorists" for "massacre" in her statement did not make sense.[26] Her statement was parodied on Twitter and other platforms with people creating fake tributes.[16] A website was set up anonymously for the purpose of collecting donations for victims of the imaginary massacre; the donation link on the website goes to the ACLU's donation page.[27][28] Facebook users mocked the Bowling Green massacre by using Facebook's safety check feature to pretend the event was real.[29] In New York City's Bowling Green, people held a mock vigil to commemorate the "victims" of the "massacre".[30] Another mock vigil took place on February 3, 2017, in Bowling Green, Kentucky.[31] Responses on the Donald Trump-centric subreddit /r/The_Donald were "varied – and rather muted", with some redditors speculating that it was an intentional part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration.[32]

Samantha Schmidt wrote in The Washington Post: "Conway has taken 'alternative facts' to a new level".[20] The Atlantic wrote that her "false statement stands out because it is simultaneously inaccurate and has the potential to be extremely inflammatory".[33] Brian Stelter on CNN criticized the Trump administration for "hammering" the media for mistakes but going easy on Conway's error.[34] British journalist Marina Hyde wrote a column in The Guardian criticizing the Trump administration for creating a fictional massacre when it was silent on the Quebec City mosque shooting.[35] UK talk show The Last Leg's Alex Brooker commented: "Are there so few shootings in America that they're having to make them up?"[36] Cosmopolitan reporter Kristen Mascia said: "It didn't surprise me that the comment was premeditated and that she'd tried it on multiple writers (who knows who else she auditioned it with, frankly). But others out there may not know this about her, and they should. We must call out the [White House] for stuff like this because it's egregious and totally unacceptable."[37] After Chelsea Clinton posted a tweet that stated, in part: "Please don't make up attacks",[38][39] Conway replied: "Bosnia lie a Great reminder", referring to how Clinton's mother Hillary Clinton falsely claimed to have landed in Bosnia "under sniper fire" during the Bosnian War.[40]

Writing in The New York Times, A. C. Thompson mentioned the 2012 case of a man who the authorities suspected of trafficking in counterfeit goods. His home and his store in Bowling Green, Ohio, were raided, and 18 firearms were found in his possession. Federal authorities believed that he was planning on killing African Americans and Jews. The man, who the prosecutors called a white supremacist, pleaded guilty to weapons and counterfeit charges, but prosecutors failed to establish that he was a political terrorist.[41]

The mayor of Bowling Green, Kentucky, issued a statement clarifying that "there was no massacre in Bowling Green", adding that he understood "how during a live interview one can misspeak and we appreciate the clarification".[42]

Conway's statement was parodied in two segments of season 42 of Saturday Night Live. In the cold open for that season's episode 13, Alec Baldwin, playing the role of Donald Trump, said that in the Bowling Green massacre, "[s]o many people died, but really they're the lucky ones. They don't have to see how bad The Apprentice has gotten".[43] In episode 14's cold open, Melissa McCarthy, playing the role of Sean Spicer, recited a list of terrorist incidents that "you [the news media] never even write about",[44][45] referencing a list of 78 supposedly under-reported terrorist incidents that the White House had released earlier that week.[46] McCarthy, as Spicer, said: "The Bowling Green massacre—not the Kellyanne one, the real one. The Horror in Six Flags. The Slaughter at Fraggle Rock. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. Okay?!"[44][45]

• Last Night in Sweden, a somewhat similar reference by Donald Trump