This morning all the rage in the news is Kellyanne Conway citing a massacre that never happened to justify Trump’s pause on immigration from 7 countries in the Middle East:
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway defends the travel ban, citing a non-existent massacre https://t.co/ZncvyKLWPk https://t.co/X4xsE2DlVN
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 3, 2017
Trump adviser cites 'massacre' to justify refugee ban via @ReutersTV pic.twitter.com/mxvPPjekZB
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) February 3, 2017
WATCH: Kellyanne Conway refers to “Bowling Green massacre” that never happened to defend travel ban pic.twitter.com/8ElvmQfinQ
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 3, 2017
Now I get that it might not have been readily clear what she meant by a the Bowling Green massacre, since there never was a massacre in bowling green.
But as Conway points out, an NBC reporter even texted her early this morning but NEVER asked what she meant before the Today Show ran with the story bashing her for saying it:
NBC reporter texted me at 632am re:a diff story; never asked what I meant on @Hardball b4 slamming me on @TODAYshow Not cool,not journalism
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
Conway’s own tweet correcting the record came just after 8am, well after the major newsers had run their story:
On @hardball @NBCNews @MSNBC I meant to say "Bowling Green terrorists" as reported here:
https://t.co/nB5SwIEoYI— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
READ: Bowling Green Terrorists: Al Qaeda in KY: US May Have Let 'Dozens' of Terrorists Into Country as Refugees https://t.co/nB5SwIEoYI
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
Why didn’t anyone contact her to ask her what she meant? Instead they just ran with the story, inferring she’s stupid or a liar, whichever one you want to believe.
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UPDATE: Here’s another tweet from CNN. Look at now snarky it is and look at the timing on the tweet. It’s well after she corrected the record:
Kellyanne Conway is right. We did not cover the Bowling Green massacre — because it never happened https://t.co/ROp7TQeEjj pic.twitter.com/WduiA3tJKx
— CNN (@CNN) February 3, 2017
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For her part, Conway must do a better job of getting her facts straight before stating them publicly. The media loves opportunities like this to make Republicans look stupid and will continue to do so as long as anyone from the Trump admin misspeaks or gets facts patently wrong.
Can you imagine what would happen if Trump said this?