Kellyanne Conway appears to invent U.S. terrorist attack to defend Trump's refugee ban

Kellyanne Conway makes up terrorist attack
(Image credit: MSNBC/YouTube)

President Trump's counselor and chief spinmeister Kellyanne Conway was on Thursday night's Hardball, and Chris Matthews was curious about Trump's executive order banning people from seven majority-Muslim countries and all refugees — and the pushback against its many critics. He noted that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had told State Department employees who signed a dissent cable to put up or get out.

"In other words, if you don't agree with the president and you work for the United States government, you shouldn't be there?" Matthews asked. Every president "has the right to really surround himself with a team that's going to work with him and not against him," Conway said. "Yeah, but civil servants swear their oath to the Constitution, they take a job for life in these career positions," Matthews protested. "Does a president have a right to insist that people who work for the federal government agree with him?" Conway shifted the discussion to terrorism, and in doing so she cited a nonexistent ban and a terrorist attack that doesn't seem to have happened.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.