Conway used 'Bowling Green massacre' days before MSNBC interview

By Rebecca Savransky - 02/06/17 10:32 AM EST

President Trump's top aide Kellyanne Conway reportedly cited the "Bowling Green massacre" days before she "misspoke" of the non-existent incident in an interview on MSNBC.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan on Jan. 29, Conway pointed to the "Bowling Green massacre," a terrorist attack that never actually occurred, to defend the president's order barring refugees and people from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

During the interview, Conway said former President Barack ObamaBarack Obama How Congress made it easier to sue Israel Conway used 'Bowling Green massacre' days before MSNBC interview Conway defends herself from 'haters' after Bowling Green comment MORE had called for a temporary "ban on Iraqi refugees" following the "Bowling Green Massacre."

"Why did he do that? He did that for exactly the same reasons," Conway told Cosmopolitan.

"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 faced backlash after referencing the "the Bowling Green massacre" during an interview last week with MSNBC's "Hardball."

"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 said during the MSNBC interview.

"Most people don't know that because it didn't get covered."

Conway later corrected herself in a tweet following the interview, which included a link to a 2013 ABC News report that referenced two terrorists from al Qaeda in Iraq who had been living in Bowling Green, Ky.

The report said the State Department halted Iraqi refugee requests for six months in 2011 as a result of the case.

Over the weekend, Conway sought to defend herself, saying she "misspoke one word." She called some of those who criticized her for the misstatement "haters."

“I should have said 'plot' or I should have just called them 'terrorists.' … I clarified immediately. I should have said terrorists and not 'massacre,'” Conway told Fox News’s “Media Buzz."

“I’m sure it will live on for a week.”

When reached by Cosmopolitan, Conway again clarified that she should have said it was a "plot to massacre and they were Bowling Green terrorists."

"Those were evil men who bragged about attacking American soldiers," she told the publication in text message.

"Frankly they were terrorists in Bowling Green but their massacre took place in Iraq. At least this got clear-thinking people to focus on what did happen in Bowling Green. I gave new life to that ABC News investigative report and the fact that these two Iraqi nationals came to the US with a plan of death and destruction."

Conway's comments came after the president signed an executive order on Jan. 27 calling for a 90-day ban on nationals from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S. The order also imposed a 120-day ban on admitting refugees and indefinitely halted accepting Syrian refugees.

A federal appeals court early Sunday rejected the Department of Justice's request to restore the president's order, after a federal judge in Seattle on Friday halted the immigration order.

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