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‘Morning Joe’ host says Kellyanne Conway was banned because ‘everything she said was disproven’

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February 22, 2017 at 11:39 a.m. EST

It took Stephen Colbert and Joe Scarborough all of two minutes to get to Kellyanne Conway and the L-word.

Scarborough was a guest Tuesday night on Colbert's “Late Show” and he seemed eager to explain the decision to ban President Trump's White House counselor from his show last week.

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“It got to a point where Kellyanne would keep coming out and everything she said was disproven like five minutes later,” Scarborough said. “And it wasn't disproven by a fact-checker — it was somebody else in the administration that would come out and actually say well, actually no, that's not true.”

“There's a quicker way to say that entire sentence,” Colbert replied. “She just lied.”

Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, is the host of “Morning Joe.” Co-host Mika Brzezinski said earlier this month that Conway tries to book herself on the show, but “I won't do it, 'cause I don't believe in fake news or information that is not true. … Every time I've seen her on television, something's askew, off, or incorrect.”

Kellyanne Conway’s ‘Bowling Green massacre’ wasn’t a slip of the tongue. She has said it before.

Conway was the person who ushered the phrase “alternative facts” into the popular American lexicon. It was January on “Meet the Press” and host Chuck Todd was pressing her on why the White House press secretary made easily disproved claims about the size of Trump's inauguration crowd.

'Morning Joe' freezes out Kellyanne Conway (Video: Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Conway told Todd that White House press secretary Sean Spicer had “alternative facts.”

“Alternative facts are not facts,” Todd responded. “They're falsehoods.”

The statement launched a slew of memes, and Conway's credibility took a hit.

It got worse a few days later, when Conway used “the Bowling Green massacre” in justifying Trump's travel ban, saying most people don't know about it “because it didn't get covered.”

It also didn't happen. There has never been a massacre in Bowling Green, Ky., by terrorists or anyone else.

Conway said she'd misspoken, but The Washington Post's Aaron Blake reported that she had referred to it several times before.

As The Post's Callum Borchers reported, the “Morning Joe” hosts have characterized Conway as “an attention seeker who texts TV producers in a constant effort to get on air, so she can speak for a White House where she actually isn't in the know.”

Borchers wrote that the morning show hosts described Conway as pretty much like her caricature on “Saturday Night Live.”

Scarborough also used his time on the show to talk about Conway's boss, the president, who they think, "based on his Twitter feed," is an avid watcher: “He's watched the show for years, kind of goes in waves. … We'll always look in the camera and say Donald, we know you're not watching the show, but how you doing?”

Colbert pushed back, jesting about calling Trump “Donald” instead of “Mr. President.”

“The way he's acted over the past month has made it even harder to call him Mr. President,” Scarborough replied.

Since Trump took office, Colbert's show has gotten more political, a topical shift toward more timely material orchestrated by Chris Licht's takeover backstage, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In early February, Colbert's “The Late Show” beat out Jimmy Fallon's “The Tonight Show” for the first time since Colbert replaced David Letterman in September 2015.

And Colbert has kept pouring it on. Last week, he called Trump adviser Stephen Miller a liar. He has made fun of Trump calling the media “the enemy of the American people,” and he has channeled Keyser Söze to blast Trump’s Russia ties.

Controversial comments from Kellyanne Conway that made headlines

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WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 23: Presidential Advisor Kellyanne Conway onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February, 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

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