Conservative media can't seem to agree whether or not Hillary Clinton's 2012 concussion was faked or was so serious she now has permanent brain damage, but whichever it is they seem ready to ignore all medical evidence in order to politicize her health.

In late December 2012, shortly before she was scheduled to testify before Congress regarding the attacks in Benghazi, Clinton sustained a concussion after she fainted due to dehydration from the flu, and was subsequently hospitalized with a potentially life-threatening blood clot in her head. The State Department postponed her testimony, and she ultimately appeared before Congress in January after her doctors confirmed she would make a full recovery.

Karl Rove reportedly dismissed this medical evidence last week when he claimed Clinton might have brain damage from the episode. Rove doubled down on his remarks today on Fox. Rove insisted that while he did not use the phrase “brain damage,” he did believe she had “a serious health episode” and “she's hidden a lot” of information about the extent of her injuries. Wildly speculating about her health was reasonable, according to Rove, because she might someday run for president.

But back in December 2012, conservative media weren't worried that Clinton's health might impede a presidential run; instead, right-wing media immediately accused Clinton of faking her concussion to avoid testifying on Benghazi, taking a potentially life-threatening incident, which the former Secretary of State thankfully recovered from, and making it a political cudgel.

Fox contributor John Bolton accused Clinton of faking a “diplomatic illness.” Monica Crowley dismissed the illness, calling it a “virus with apparently impeccable timing.” Fox's The Five took the attacks a step further by mocking the Secretary's health, accusing Clinton of running “a duck and cover” and joking, “How can she get a concussion when she has been ducking everything [related to Benghazi]?” On Special Report Charles Krauthammer quipped she was “suffering from acute Benghazi allergy,” a joke Sean Hannity liked so much he laughed about it later on his own show. When this mockery came under fire, host Greg Gutfeld attempted to defend Fox's actions by dismissing their remarks as mere “skepticism” and accusing journalists of “ginning up fake hatred, or outrage, towards skeptics.” It wasn't just Fox, though; The Los Angeles Times, for instance, posted an online poll giving credence to the concussion conspiracy theories, asking readers “did she fake it?”

As The Wire noted, some of these conspiracy theorists quickly flipped when conservatives realized mocking a serious health condition, including the blood clot, was not a winning strategy. The New York Post, which had initially featured the headline “Hillary Clinton's head fake,” followed up with a sober report on her condition noting that “Cynics in the media and in Congress sneered that Clinton was faking the concussion to avoid testimony about the attack” -- without acknowledging their own previous coverage. The Daily Caller similarly reported in February that “whispers” suggested Clinton's health was so bad she “may not even be capable of making it to Iowa and New Hampshire,” after having wondered two months before why “we're supposed to just take her word for it” that she collapsed and hit her head. Fox, however, seems to be sticking with concussion trutherism; just this month, host Eric Bolling claimed Clinton purposefully “hit her head” so someone else could “take the bullet” on Benghazi.

So she either lied about a serious injury in order to avoid testimony (which she still gave), or she's now lying about being healthy in order to run for president (which she isn't currently doing). Either way, Rove's comments continue conservative media's stubborn insistence to politicize her health in whichever direction suits them at the moment, regardless of medical evidence.