Last Thursday, Conway made herself the subject of nationwide ridicule after she defended President Trump’s ban on refugees, immigrants and travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations by citing two Iraqi refugees who she said “came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.”
There is no such thing as the Bowling Green massacre — although the Iraqis were arrested in 2011 and later pleaded guilty to charges related to efforts to send money and weapons to al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq, they were never planning on attacking any targets in the United States.
Conway’s fabrication was widely derided, with parodical protesters holding signs in New York reading “We are all Bowling Green” and “We stand with Bowling Green” and comedians skewering the presidential adviser’s “alternative facts” — including the lie that the corporate mainstream media is underreporting Islamist terror attacks — with relish. “The president is accusing the media of refusing to cover major terror attacks,” Late Show host Stephen Colbert quipped. “Why?… It makes perfect sense. You know the old news adage, ‘If it bleeds, don’t talk about it.’”
Under pressure and serious scrutiny regarding her integrity and trustworthiness, Conway apologized in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday. “I felt really badly about that,” she said of her massacre fabrication. “I apologize and I rectified. I’m very happy to have raised awareness.”
“You cited a massacre that didn’t happen, you said the media didn’t cover it,” Tapper replied.
“What I meant is the media didn’t cover the masterminds,” she said, referring to the two Iraqis who neither committed nor planned any massacre in the United States.
Conway’s apology came as the Trump administration was under fire for yet more lies about subjects as wide-ranging as Iran attacking an American warship, the media’s reporting of Islamist terrorism and the U.S. murder rate. In a January 22 interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Conway, when pressed about the administration’s false assertion that Trump’s inauguration was better-attended than Barack Obama’s historic swearing-in in 2009, said White House spokesman Sean Spicer was offering “alternative facts” that had limited or no basis in reality. Critics have blasted “alternative facts” as another name for lies.
