Conway defends herself from ‘haters’ after Bowling Green comment

White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway is continuing to defend herself after referencing a terrorist attack that never occurred, calling some of those who criticized her for the misstatement “haters.”

“I should have said ‘plot’ or I should have just called them ‘terrorists.’ … I clarified immediately. I should have said terrorists and not ‘massacre,’” Conway told Fox News’ “Media Buzz,” according to a preview of the interview airing Sunday.

“I’m sure it will live on for a week.”

{mosads}In an interview with MSNBC’s “Hardball” in which she defended President Trump’s recent travel ban, Conway referenced former President Barack Obama’s temporary ban on Iraqi refugees, saying it came after “the Bowling Green massacre.”

“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. Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered,” she said in the Thursday interview.

Conway corrected herself in a tweet Friday morning, which included a link to a 2013 ABC News report that referenced two terrorists from al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) who had been living in Bowling Green, Ky.

The report said the State Department halted Iraqi refugee requests for six months in 2011 as a result of the case.

“I misspoke one word. The corrections in the newspapers that are attacking me are three paragraphs long every day,” Conway told Fox.

Conway’s comments came after Trump signed an executive order Jan. 27 calling for a 90-day ban on nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. The order also imposed a 120-day ban on admitting refugees and indefinitely halted accepting Syrian refugees.

On Friday, a federal judge issued a nationwide temporary restraining order, halting the executive order. The Trump administration has said it will challenge the judge’s ruling.