Some of the talking heads at CNN have finally come around to accepting so-called “conspiracy theories” about a “deep state” operating within the government, though the reason for this newfound acceptance seems to be awfully convenient for the Democrat Party and its interests.

Speaking Thursday evening about just-resigned Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne’s claims that there was a “deep state” operation against various political figures in 2016, two of the network’s arguably most liberal hosts agreed that the claims deserve to be taken seriously.

Listen:

Source: CNN

But what prompted their sudden agreement with a theory that’s been posited by conservatives, including President Donald Trump, for years — and that’s similarly been mocked by liberals, including those in the media? Hillary Rodham Clinton — that’s what.

“Listen, it’s interesting because, speaking for the people at home as I’m watching it the first time, I’m like, what is he saying, because this whole deep state thing was supposed to be about setting up Donald Trump, yet he’s saying that Hillary Clinton was set up and that the FBI was used as a political apparatus,” host Don Lemon began during a discussion with fellow network host Chris Cuomo.

Last week Byrne issued incredible statements claiming that during the 2016 presidential election, “deep state” intelligence officials within the government had sought his help in investigating various political figures, including then-presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

It’s already been known that certain figures within former President Barack Hussein Obama’s Department of Justice, including disgraced former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, had sought to investigate Trump for reasons that may have been illegitimate and are currently being investigated by Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham.

However, members of the left-wing media have been dismissive of this investigation and described its basis as an “insane conspiracy theory.” But now that Byrne has suggested that Clinton may have been targeted in a manner similar to Trump, the media seem to be all ears.

(THREAD) So much disinformation is being spread about the Mueller investigation—in some cases with uncritical repetition by the media—that it’s time for some clarifications before the conspiracy theories Trump and Barr are selling become gospel. I hope you’ll read on and retweet. pic.twitter.com/AR3lfTitSI — Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) April 11, 2019

AG Barr launches probe into Russia investigation origins, stoking Trump’s ‘spying’ conspiracy theory https://t.co/InTpReIimW — Daily Kos (@dailykos) May 14, 2019

What is Barr’s new power doing? @charlie_savage : “This is Barr sucking up the vortex … of all the right-wing conspiracy theories and suspicions on what happened in the beginning of the Russia investigation.” #MTPDaily — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 24, 2019

INBOX: Statement from ⁦@PressSec⁩ announcing that AG Barr has been empowered to declassify materials in an attempt to prove the various conspiracy theories surrounding how ⁦the Mueller investigation initially began. ⁩ pic.twitter.com/irqQFaRV8f — Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) May 24, 2019

.@SenatorShaheen asks Barr about reports he’s launched an investigation into officials who investigated Trump “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” he says, echoing baseless right-win conspiracy theories. “I think spying did occur.” Shaheen is left speechless pic.twitter.com/G1fcAF2Irh — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 10, 2019

“If I had even sensed that this was about a political agenda or some Infowars BS like that, I would never have him on the show,” Cuomo said as the discussion on CNN continued. “But I know him, I’ve tracked his career over the years, his website has got some stuff on it that is certainly controversial …”

Lemon then cut in to point out that Byrne is in reality sort of of a conspiracy theorist — but just not a bad one.

“He is a conspiracy theorist of sorts [but] not [like] the ones we were talking about yesterday, with the guy calling President Donald ‘the second coming,'” he said.

Earlier this week conservative radio show host Wayne Allyn Root said that the Jewish people in Israel love the president “like he is the second coming of God.”

Lemon’s point, in other words, was that Byrne’s not a typical conservative conspiracy theorist.

“He’s not some lunatic,” Cuomo said in agreement. “Again, his company was a $745 million company. I’m not saying you can’t be rich and cuckoo, I’m saying that he’s always sounded like that. When I interviewed him in 1998/’99, he sounded like that.”

“Look, either he’s got the names or he doesn’t, and in terms of politics, he said what they did with Clinton was wrong, what they did with Trump was wrong, what they did with me was wrong. It’s not like he’s trying to advance a partisan agenda.”

“We don’t know in these times,” Lemon replied. “Listen, people don’t know what to believe now. Having heard what he had to say, I don’t know. I would like it to be investigated a bit more.”

It’s unclear why he’s never expressed a similar sentiment about the boatloads of evidence indicating that the Obama administration had acted illegally vis-à-vis its investigation into Trump.

Report on “political surveillance” coming soon https://t.co/AmUvRmaHIX — Budd’s Voice (@buddmann) August 22, 2019

“Given who he is, I think he deserves to have his say,” Cuomo added. “And he’s had it. And now we have to vet it. But I do not see it as the advancing of some ‘deep state’ conspiracy that we like hear from a lot of the Trumpers from the far right or something.”

And there it was. Because Byrne’s allegations are useful to the Democrat Party — given as they could be used to argue that Clinton unfairly lost the 2016 election — they deserve to be taken seriously.

“Basically what he’s saying, according to him, is that the premier investigative unit in the United States is being used, at least he thinks, in this situation as a political unit rather than an investigative unit. And if that is indeed so, that is troubling,” Lemon said, concluding the discussion.

That’s the exact same thing “Trumpers,” as Cuomo calls them, have been saying for years. Except whenever they said it, they were smeared as “conspiracy theorists.” Well, if they’re “conspiracy theorists,” then what are Lemon and Cuomo, hmm?