The mainstream media has consistently shown over the last eight months that it learned nothing from the 2024 elections.
Unfortunately, the same holds true for their (discredited) partners in the fact-checking industry as well.
The latest example comes courtesy of the leftist partisans at Politifact, which has rushed to Zohran Mamdani’s rescue twice in the span of two weeks over the issue of President Donald Trump calling the Democrat NYC mayoral nominee a communist.
As Legal Insurrection previously reported, the POTUS has referred to Mamdani as a communist several times in recent weeks, with the first one being in a Truth Social post from June 25th, the day after the primary:
It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We’ve had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous.
Another instance was at the White House on July 1st:
I think he’s terrible. He’s a communist. The last thing we need is a Communist. I said there will never be socialism in the United States, then we have a Communist. I think it’s bad news, and I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with him, watching him, because he has to come right through this building [points to the White House] to get his money.
To try and discredit Trump, Politifact consulted with purported “experts” in higher ed (because of course) who either downplayed policy positions from Mamdani that are indicative of communist sympathies or stated that they fell more in line with the socialism banner he flies:
“Mamdani is NOT a communist,” wrote Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University professor of international studies, in an email to PolitiFact. “Communism involves a centrally planned economy, with no market forces. Prices and quantities are set by a central government authority. There is no democratic political competition, and instead a single party rules the country. He is not calling for any of this.”[…]Mamdani doesn’t seek to do away with private property or advocate a government takeover of any industry, said Ted Henken, a Baruch College professor. Instead, Mamdani proposes targeted interventions to tackle high living costs in New York City, Henken said.”The New Yorkers who support him seem to do so not because of any communist ideology on his or their part, but because he proposes to address this crisis of affordability,” Henken said.[…]”Many western democracies — from France to Canada — have policies such as free or heavily subsidized child care and public transit,” said Oxana Shevel, a Tufts University associate professor of comparative politics.
Politifact ultimately gave Trump a “false” rating for his suggestion that Mamdani was a communist.
When the Trump White House sent Politifact more evidence of Mamdani’s communist leanings, they consulted more “experts,” including some they talked to the first time around, to again allege Trump was telling a falsehood:
The spokesperson sent us a June 30 New York Post article highlighting Mamdani’s 2021 remarks as a newly elected state assemblyman and a 2020 Mamdani tweet praising a young leader. (We won’t dwell on the latter post because Mamdani’s point isn’t clear.) Fox News, Mediate and CNN pundits flagged his resurfaced remarks.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.
Here are those 2021 remarks:
Here’s the tweet they refused to “dwell on” and which, in my opinion, proved the communist accusation perhaps even more than the video:
Gee, it’s no wonder they didn’t want to “dwell” on that tweet and gaslighted about how Mamdani’s point isn’t clear, because he as much as admitted there that NYC needed a communist mayor.
Incredibly, the last prof they cited in their follow-up piece went so far as to say that Mamdani had merely been engaging in “lighthearted hyperbole” with his statement about seizing the means of production:
Geoffrey Kurtz, an associate political science professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College, said listening to the video clip and watching Mamdani, “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.”
In reality, here’s the actual communist scorecard for Mamdani:
An investigation by Just the News shows that in tweets, speeches, and affiliations, Mamdani, at his core, holds a strong affinity for straight-up Communism: praising and campaigning with a Marxist state senator in New York; declaring that NYC needed a mayor just like a famously young Indian mayor who was a member of an explicitly Marxist and Communist Party; praising the 1917 Russian Revolution which led to the overthrow of the Czar and, soon, the establishment of the Soviet Union at the cost of millions of lives; arguing about the need to “seize the means of production” in a reference to a core Marxist principle; praising famous radical Communist figures; and much more.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
-Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter/X.-
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