Last week, we reported on how PolitiFact threw a "False" flag at President Trump for calling New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a "communist lunatic," despite contrary evidence, like his 2020 tweet in support of a communist mayor in India, suggesting that's the kind of mayor New York needs. On Thursday, in reaction to a White House spokesperson, PolitiFact doubled down on its ruling, dismissing Mamdani's clearly Marxist talk of seizing the means of production.

Originally, PolitiFact's Amy Sherman and intern Ella Moore insisted the the "fact" was Mamdani, was socialist, not communist: 

Mamdani’s mayoral platform proposes making New York City more affordable, including via free buses and day care, rent control and city-owned grocery stores. That is not akin to communism, a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private businesses. Mamdani has not called for the elimination of private ownership.

On Thursday, Sherman noted the White House pushed back on this with a New York Post article highlighting Mamdani actually talking about seizing the means of production: 

A White House spokesperson highlighted Mamdani’s use of the phrase in an email to PolitiFact July 1, days after we published our June 26 fact-check of President Donald Trump who called Mamdani "communist" in a Truth Social post. The White House didn’t send us evidence to support Trump’s statement before our fact-check was posted; multiple political scientists and communism experts told us Mamdani’s mayoral race positions did not amount to communism.

Sherman acknowledged this passage in a 2021 speech by Mamdani: "But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it's BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel), right, or whether it's the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment."

But she refused to budge: "After reviewing the tape and re-interviewing experts, we decided not to change our False rating. Mamdani’s views in the mayoral race do not reflect communism, and experts found his 2021 remark too brief to reach detailed conclusions."

By that standard, if a Republican endorsed Nazism as the "end goal" four years before he ran for office, you couldn't call him a "Nazi" if he wasn't explicitly proposing Nazism in his current campaign speeches. Does anyone believe these liberals would desperately streeeeeeeeeeetch the facts in that case? 

Their funniest expert on the rebound was Geoffrey Kurtz: "I had the impression that Mamdani intended that phrase as lighthearted hyperbole. I see no reason to assume that the phrase conveys anything precise about what he thinks."

At least their expert Harvey Klehr made a sensible point about distinguishing socialists and communists:

Democratic socialists "have long eschewed rhetoric about seizing the means of production," Klehr said. "In the 20th century it became a defining difference between communists and socialists."

....As for Mamdani, he said, "there is no way of telling exactly what Mamdani means by using that phrase, but it is redolent of authoritarian communists’ language."