The Politico editor said it was 'an absolutely terrible look'
Trump and others charged in latest indictment
Fox News correspondent Matt Finn reports on the names being charged in the indictment in Georgia, including former President Trump.
Politico editor Michael Schafer demanded in a recent column that liberals stop the "progressive hero worship" of those prosecuting former President Donald Trump.
"Please, Please Stop With the Progressive Hero Worship of Jack Smith and Tanya Chutkan," a headline from a column published in Politico magazine read.
Schafer argued that Trump's only hope was "claiming the legal system has been politicized," and wondered why liberals were "helping" him.
The Politico editor also described indictment-themed merchandise on Etsy stores, hailing Chutkan with shirts that say, "JUDGE CHUTKAN FAN CLUB."
Jack Smith, US special counsel, speaks during a news conference in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Trump was indicted for a fourth time out of Fulton County, Georgia, on Tuesday.
"Chutkan is only the latest public employee whose interaction with Trump has turned her into an icon for the tote-bag-and-novelty-sock set. Last week, my colleague Calder McHugh wrote about the cult that has sprung up around Jack Smith, the man prosecuting Trump, complete with fanboy Twitter and Tiktok accounts and sales of a pillow depicting Smith as Jaws. There’s also merch that name-checks Alvin Bragg (the prosecutor who indicted Trump in New York) and Fani Willis," Schafer wrote.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is overseeing Special Counsel Jack Smith's 2020 election meddling case against Trump.
"In a democracy of embattled institutions, this sort of veneration is an absolutely terrible look. And, for supposed foes of the ex-president, it’s also awfully counterproductive," Schafer wrote.
Former President Donald Trump gestures on stage during the Alabama Republican Party’s 2023 Summer meeting at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel on August 4, 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Julie Bennett/Getty Images)
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He said it largely reinforced Trumps argument.
"To put her on T-shirts because she happens to be the one doing it is to implicitly accept Trump’s idea of a system that’s rigged," he said, referring to Chutkan.
"Turning them into pop-culture heroes only furthers the institutional delegitimization that sits at the core of Trump’s rhetoric. The whole point of an impartial system is that it’s supposed to work the same regardless of which citizen is before the bench, and regardless of which public servant is sitting on it," Schafer wrote.
During the Mueller investigation liberals lionized him with similar trinkets and votives, only to be disappointed later. (Peggy Peattie /For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
"A country where public servants become heroes or villains simply for doing their job in a way that inconveniences a political faction is not a country we should want to live in. It’s less like the government depicted in civics class than the one described in aggrieved Trump speeches," Schafer said before telling progressives that they should "know better."
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Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
