Bowling Green massacre

Conway cited it as justification for a travel and immigration ban from seven Muslim-majority countries enacted by United States president Donald Trump.

The day after the interview, Conway said she misspoke and had been referring to the 2011 arrest of two Iraqi refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on charges including "attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"[1] She stated that she had mentioned the incident because it led previous President Barack Obama to tighten immigration procedures for Iraqi citizens.

In 2011, two Iraqi men who had entered the country as refugees were arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on federal terrorism charges after they attempted to send both money and weapons to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

[3] Arrests were made on various charges, including "attempting to provide material support to terrorists and to al Qaeda in Iraq".

The initial comment was made on ABC's This Week, and then Spicer repeated the claim on MSNBC's Morning Joe the following day.

The Washington Post's Fact Checker noted that Paul's statement was truer than Conway's because the Iraqi nationals did discuss bombing an Army target in the United States, even though neither was charged with making actual plans to do so.

[16] Contrary to Conway's claims, there is no evidence that the men had traveled back to the Middle East[15] or had any contact with ISIS after being admitted to the United States.

[21] The video clip of Conway's "massacre" statement went viral online,[3] with the phrase becoming the top trending topic on Twitter.

[29] Responses on the Donald Trump-centric subreddit /r/The_Donald were "varied – and rather muted", with some redditors speculating that it was an intentional part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration.

[31] Brian Stelter on CNN criticized the Trump administration for "hammering" the media for mistakes but going easy on Conway's error.

[32] British journalist Marina Hyde wrote a column in The Guardian criticizing the Trump administration for creating a fictional massacre when it was silent on the Quebec City mosque shooting.

[38] Writing in The New York Times, A. C. Thompson mentioned the 2012 case of a man who the authorities suspected of trafficking in counterfeit goods.

In the cold open for that season's episode 13, Alec Baldwin, playing the role of Donald Trump, said that in the Bowling Green massacre, "[s]o many people died, but really they're the lucky ones.