In remarks Wednesday night at Hillsdale College in Michigan, Barr had called the lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history” since slavery.
Representative James Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democratic leader, told CNN Barr’s remarks were “the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful things I’ve ever heard” because they wrongly equated human bondage with a measure aimed at saving lives.
“Slavery was not about saving lives, it was about devaluing lives,” he said.
“This pandemic is a threat to human life.”
It is not the first occasion that Barr has condemned stay-at-home orders.
He has previously said some orders are “disturbingly close to house arrest” and the Justice Department sent letters to several states warning some of their virus-related restrictions might be unlawful.
Prosecutors also filed statements of interest in several civil cases challenging some of the restrictions.
