Being a Communist is practically a requirement for being a trusted Democrat these days...this doesn’t hurt him a bit.
No different than the requirement that a feminist “prove” she’s real by doing it up with a butch.
Notice we all agree democrats are communist.
But none of them would come out in public and proclaim “I’m communist.” In fact, as we can see in the case of Axelrod, they do whatever they can to cover it up.