He used ‘lefties’ versus ‘leftists’. I took ‘lelfties’ to mean the leaders not the followers.
Okay, but he was talking about his coworkers who are probably not political leaders. That said, you’re right on target that the upper echelon knows full well there was no collusion.
And there is an interesting question of exactly where the line is between the “inner party” that’s participating in the big lie and the “outer party” which actually believes the big lie.