Sean Spicer cited a nonexistent Atlanta terror attack 3 times, says he meant to say Orlando
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
White House press secretary Sean Spicer suggested he misspoke when he cited an Atlanta terror attack that never happened.
At least three times last month, Spicer mentioned a nonexistent Atlanta, Georgia, terror attack while defending Trump’s controversial travel ban. Spicer named Atlanta alongside the Boston Marathon bombings and the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.
In a statement to ABC News Wednesday night, Spicer said he "clearly meant Orlando," apparently referring to the July mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida.
The Daily Beast first caught Spicer’s misstatements on Tuesday.
On Jan. 29, Spicer explained on ABC's "This Week":
"What do we say to the family who loses somebody over a terroristic [sic] — to whether it's Atlanta or San Bernardino or the Boston bomber? Those people, each of whom had gone out to a country and then come back."
The very next day, Spicer took to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to defend Trump’s travel ban again:
“What happened if we didn't act and somebody was killed? ... Too many of these cases that have happened — whether you're talking about San Bernardino, Atlanta ... would you wait until you do? The answer is we act now to protect the future."
Finally, at a press briefing on January 30, Spicer once again referenced Atlanta:
“But I don't think you have to look any further than the families of the Boston Marathon, in Atlanta, in San Bernardino …”
Earlier this week, the White House released a list of 78 terror attacks that it alleged went underreported by the media — though several incidents on that list were indeed widely reported by news organization worldwide.
Atlanta police spokeswoman Elizabeth Espy said in a statement to CNN the department was unaware of any recent terrorist attacks. "From what we can recall, the last known terrorist attack in the state was 1996 in which Eric Rudolph was implicated," she wrote, referring to a bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
A security expert also weighed in on the confusion in an interview with The Daily Beast: “There has not been a successful jihadi terror attack in Atlanta,” said Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.