The Democratic Party’s go-to excuse for why it lost a winnable presidential election in 2016 is that Moscow tricked U.S. voters with memes.

Since President Trump won the White House, major newsrooms have fully embraced the Russian interference narrative, meaning top journalists, including NBC News’ Heidi Przybyla, now see Russian agents under every doily.

It is like the Red Scare of the 1950s all over again, only dumber.

On Monday, at around 5:30 p.m., a Twitter user deployed the hashtag “#BloombergIsRacist” in response to the release of damning audio of 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Mike Bloomberg describing the controversial stop-and-frisk policies he championed as mayor of New York City.

As the audio went viral, the hashtag did likewise, which is exactly the sort of online response one would expect for remarks as controversial as Bloomberg’s.

However, for an obscure Twitter account that goes by the name “Ms. Krassenstein,” which is almost certainly being used by the anti-Trump activist brothers of the same name to circumvent a permanent Twitter ban , the anti-Bloomberg hashtag reeked of Russian interference.

Because, why not?

“Did you all realize that Hashtags like #BloombergIsRacist or #Mayorcheat start trending at between 2-5am?” the account tweeted Tuesday morning. “Yes, that's 10am to 1pm in Moscow. Stop falling for this crap.”

First, “#BloombergIsRacist” is not even unique to 2020. The hashtag was used first in 2013. “#BloombergIsRacist” has appeared several times on Twitter since then.

Second, the hashtag did not start trending in the United States on Tuesday between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. It appeared Monday evening in response to the Bloomberg audio. It grew steadily in popularity until it became a top-trending hashtag Tuesday morning at a little after 6 a.m. EST, according to Trends 24. Sure, 6 a.m. EST is 2 p.m. Moscow time. It is also 2:30 p.m. Tehran time and 7 p.m. Shanghai time. The point is: There is as much evidence showing the Russians are behind the “#BloombergIsRacist” hashtag, which has been in use for seven years, as there is evidence showing the Iranians and the Chinese are behind it.

Which is to say there is no evidence at all. Only an idiot would accept “Ms. Krassenstein’s” conspiracy mongering at face value.

Ahem.

“Interesting observation,” NBC News’ Heidi Przybyla said in a since-deleted tweet Tuesday morning, drawing the attention of her more than 145,000 followers to “Ms. Krassenstein’s” Moscow tweet.

There are so many things wrong with a reporter at a major news organization promoting the Russia/Bloomberg conspiracy. First, Przybyla made no effort whatsoever to figure out whether there was any truth to the bogus allegation that the “#BloombergIsRacist” hashtag started between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. The NBC reporter did not so much as ask whether the obscure Twitter account meant Eastern Standard Time or Pacific Standard Time.

Przybyla simply promoted a Kremlin conspiracy theory on blind faith, because that is what reporters do these days.

Later, after a few users noted “#BloombergIsRacist” is indeed trending organically, Przybyla tweeted, “and it looks like this video, which was posted by a real account, not a troll, was part of where things started. … and, despite the trending time observation, looks like it started after a real account posted this [audio of Bloomberg].”

A whole 10 minutes of double-checking would have told her that. Also, I would like to point out that Przybyla's use of “trending time observation” lends credence still to the incorrect claim that the hashtag began trending when "Ms. Krassenstein" claimed it did.

With reporters like this, who even needs Alex Jones?