Washington, D.C. –Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) issued the following statement in response to Attorney General William Barr's comment comparing stay-at-home orders issued by governors to mitigate the spread of coronavirus to slavery:
"In addition to his outrageously offensive comments, Attorney General Barr’s entire worldview is dangerous and wrong.Instead of protecting our civil rights, he wants to charge peaceful protestors with the crime of 'sedition.' Instead of confronting systemic racism in our justice system, he sows division and stokes conspiracy theories. Instead of working to solve the COVID-19 crisis, he attacks the state and local officials trying to keep their communities safe from a pandemic that this Administration has allowed to rage out of control.
"The Attorney General is entitled to his own opinion, but his view that stay-at-home orders are comparable to slavery, which systematically oppressed millions of African Americans for hundreds of years, is unconscionable and reflect the values brought to the Department of Justice by Mr. Barr and this Administration."
