It’s not idiocy if none of their voters won’t fact check, and if the ad was against a political opponent not the athlete specifically. Bonus points if it’s a Republican judge evaluating the defamation claim.

They’re not idiots. They’re making the reasonable gamble that no matter what happens, they and their families will end up on top. They’ve had a lot of practice saying shit like this. They only lost the Dominion case once Trump started altering the decision tree into explicit lies.