After Trump Administration propagandist Kellyanne Conway referred to the non-existent “Bowling Green Massacre” on MSNBC last week, she issued a rare admission of her error, calling it an “honest mistake” and that she “meant to say ‘Bowling Green terrorists.’ “
Well, surprise! It’s all bullshit.
[I]n an interview with Cosmopolitan.com conducted by phone days earlier, on Sunday, Jan. 29, Conway used the same phrasing, claiming that President Barack Obama called for a temporary "ban on Iraqi refugees” after the “Bowling Green massacre.” (The quotes did not appear in either of two stories recently published on Cosmopolitan.com.)
"He did, it’s a fact," she said of Obama. "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."
True to form, Conway manages to slip in more lies here: there is no evidence that the two Iraqi men “travelled back to the Middle East to get trained and refine their terrorism skills, and come back here...” It is clear that she knows very well what she’s doing here: laying the groundwork for the “Bowling Green Massacre” comment that follows.
Furthermore, her replies to Cosmo’s follow-up questions leave no doubt that she knew very well that her original statement had no basis in reality. Check out his laughable “clarification”:
Reached for comment Friday afternoon, Conway told Cosmopolitan.com by text message, "It was a plot to massacre and they were Bowling Green terrorists. That's what I should have said. I clarified.”
All through this absurd saga I’ve assumed that the so-called Bowling Green Massacre “mistake” was a in fact a classic propaganda ploy, concocted to remind people about “terrorists living in our midst.” This quote from Kellyanne in the Cosmo article pretty much confirms this theory:
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."
note: I just realized that this story is covered on the DKos front page. My take is a bit different, so I’ll leave the post up. Thanks for reading!