This Week In Cognitive Dissonance

Item #1: A story in today’s New York Times, headlined “After Shake-Up by Trump, Clinton Camp Keeps Wary Eye on ‘Conspiracy Theories.'” Here’s the lede:

It took just a few hours, after Donald J. Trump announced a major staff shake-up last week, for Hillary Clinton’s campaign team to settle on a new buzzword.

“He peddles conspiracy theories,” her campaign manager, Robby Mook, said of Mr. Trump on MSNBC.

“We hear rehashed conspiracy theories,” he added moments later.

“He doubled down on this today,” Mr. Mook said, wrapping up, “by appointing someone to lead his campaign who makes these conspiracy theories basically his professional mission.”

Robby Mook…hmm. Didn’t I see that name somewhere else recently? Oh, right:

Item #2:

Mook said told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump still needs to explain a “web of financial ties” that connects the Republican candidate to Moscow.

“There’s a web of financial interests that have not been disclosed,” he said. “And there are real questions being raised about whether Donald Trump himself is just a puppet for the Kremlin in this race.”

Mook cautioned that the Russian government is still at the “core” of Trump’s campaign…

Seems to me that if you’re going to dismiss “conspiracy theories” as a category, you might want to refrain from suggesting your rival is a tentacle of the Kremlin. But I’m not a political professional.

(For more on Trumpian conspiracy theories, go here. For more on anti-Trumpian conspiracy theories, go here.)