Trump adviser cites fake terrorist attack to justify Muslim Ban

Facts and statistics do not back up US President Donald Trump's notorious ban on immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.

So, how did the Trump administration choose to justify the move? Alternative facts.

In an MSNBC interview on Thursday night, senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway -- known for coining the term "alternative facts" -- cited a terrorist attack committed by Iraqi refugees in Kentucky. Her attempt to rationalize Trump's ban soon backfired when pundits pointed out a crucial detail missing from her story: the fact that it never happened. 

Here's what Conway told host Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball program, fitting in two false claims in a 19-second reply. 

"I bet it’s 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 radicalised and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre."

Conway adds, "Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered". Actually, most people don't know that because it is false. 

As commentators were quick to reveal, Barack Obama did not ban Iraqi refugees and Iraqi terrorists have not killed anyone in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In fact, according to Vox, no one has ever been killed by refugees in the city.

There were two Iraqi men linked to terrorism in Bowling Green, but Conway kicked the story up a notch.

In 2011, two Iraqi refugees, Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, were arrested in Bowling Green and sentenced for life on federal terrorism charges. They were accused of using explosive devices against US soldiers in Iraq and planning to send money and weapons to Iraqi rebels.

But, no attack took place, neither were Alwan and Hammadi accused of plotting any attacks in the US. 

Vox reports that the investigation of the case revealed a flaw in America's refugee screening process related to fingerprint databases. 

Contrary to Conway's allegations, the Obama administration did not ban Iraqi refugees from the country for six months following the incident. 

Instead, the administration issued a reassessment of 57,000 Iraqi refugees who had recently entered the US, which slowed down the process of admitting Iraqi refugees for six months. Iraqi refugees entered the country in all six months.

The Trump administration has been caught hashing out misleading claims or blatant lies on several occasions. 

When White House spokesman Sean Spicer falsely claimed that Trump's inauguration crowd was "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration", Conway said Spicer was giving "alternative facts"-- now known by the public as false claims. 

The Trump administration has used the threat of radical Islamic terror attacks to defend the recently-signed executive order suspending the admission of refugees and immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Trump received a horde of backlash for the ban, especially since his xenophobic and retrograde policies cannot be justified by facts.

The nationals of countries US President Donald Trump has banned from the country have killed zero civilians in America since 1980. Plus, since 9/11, homegrown white supremacists and non-Islamic extremists have killed more Americans in the US than all Islamic extremists. There is actually a 0.00003% chance an American gets killed in an attack by a foreign-born terrorist.