It’s like we’re little kids and the parents are lying to us about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, only 1000 times worse. I guess that’s how they see us, as little kids. Their hubris is astonishing.
The initial thrust was to try, somehow, to damage President Trump. Then, seeing how pliable was the main media and how gullible was the public, the thinking was “Gold mine! We can keep this going and make $Billions!!”