Over the past couple of weeks your Facebook might have been filled with alternative facts. Members of Trump’s administration have not been telling the whole truth about several situation. One of the most interesting would be Bowling Green massacre. If you have never heard of this, it’s okay because it never happened. Here is what really happened.
Last Thursday, Kellyanne Conway made false claims to a massacre in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She made these claims while trying to defend Trump’s immigration ban. She is quoted by saying,
“I bet, there was very little coverage – I bet its 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”.
So what exactly is wrong with what Conway said? Let break it down
Here first claim with Obama’s ban is incorrect. Obama never placed a ban on people from Iraqi coming into the United States, but he did slow down the process. Due to security reason, the process was slowed down and about half the normal amount of Iraqis were admitted into the US. The number was still 9,300 Iraqis.
Next comes the Bowling Green massacre that never happened in Kentucky. The real story does not involve death. Two Iraqi men who entered the U.S as refugees and lived in Bowling Green, were arrested in 2011 and charged with supporting a terrorist group. Although thy found some weapons, they did not find any evidence of the two planning an attack in Kentucky. Both men admitted to sending money and weapons to al-Qaida in Iraq and got served a life time sentence in prison. Neither man was charged with plotting attacks in the United States.
Conway later admitted to her mistakes on twitter. She blamed the reporter for not asking her to explain what she meant saying, “Not cool, not journalism”. She calls this an “honest mistake”, I call it not knowing what you’re talking about.