Sean Spicer cites a nonexistent Atlanta terror attack on 3 occasions, says he meant to say Orlando

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February 9, 2017 7:02 AM

"There has not been a successful jihadi terror attack in Atlanta."

Sean Spicer

The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, is saying he misspoke when he cited an Atlanta terrorist attack that never happened.

At least three times last month, Spicer mentioned a nonexistent Atlanta terrorist attack while defending President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban. Spicer listed Atlanta alongside cities such as Boston and San Bernardino, California, that have seen attacks in recent years.

In a statement to ABC News on Wednesday night, Spicer said he "clearly meant Orlando," apparently referring to the mass shooting in June at a gay nightclub in Florida.

The Daily Beast first caught Spicer’s misstatements on Tuesday.

On January 29, Spicer said on ABC's "This Week":

The very next day, Spicer spoke on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to again defend Trump's travel ban:

Finally, at a White House press briefing the same day, Spicer once again mentioned Atlanta:

Atlanta Police Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Espy said in a statement to CNN on Wednesday that the department was unaware of any recent terrorist attacks in Atlanta. "From what we can recall, the last known terrorist attack in the state was 1996 in which Eric Rudolph was implicated," she said, referring to a bombing that happened at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was criticized last week for citing another terrorist attack that never happened, a "massacre" in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for which she apologized.

On Monday, the White House released a list of 78 terrorist attacks it said were underreported by the media, ostensibly to support its argument for the travel ban, which has temporarily been blocked by a federal judge in Washington state. Several incidents on that list, however, were indeed widely reported by news organizations worldwide.

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