Thing is, they don’t have to believe it to feel justified in saying it. Just like some cultures accept/encourage otherwise negative behavior like cheating or lying as long as it’s at the expense of the ‘enemy’ (unlike some cultures who would consider those acts dishonorable in themselves), Republicans are easily at that point in their culture where as long as it somehow owns (or just bothers or creates extra work for) liberals, and internally they can wink wink, nudge nudge each other and be on the inside of the joke, it’s perfectly fine to say one thing and think another.

The problem is that they aren’t particularly good at it, so there isn’t really a solid line and, find themselves on both sides of the lines as far as being the insiders and also the mark, they don’t fully know how to function. Just watch the lower level people in interviews…they have no idea what the end game plan is, just some talking points, so when you ask them about two counter-intuitive assertions, they just fall back to pouting and anger. It’s really no difference for the top-level players like Trump and Guiliani. They just know that the lies work, and some people are letting them get away with them, and everyone else can’t keep up with the speed with which it’s spewing from their collective mouths, so they follow that prayer, the say it, they know they have to say it half convincingly, and in the process, end up believing in some of it, laughing about most of it, and generally confused about which half is which.