'Ridiculous, tone-deaf, god-awful things': Attorney General Barr under fire for comparing corornavirus lockdowns to US slavery

Democrat James Clyburn calls comparison ‘tone deaf’ and ‘god-awful’

United States attorney general William Barr  was dubbed “tone deaf” after he compared coronavirus lockdown measures to slavery. 

Mr Barr, whose comments came as he called on prosecutors to aggressively target Black Lives Matter demonstrators,  was ridiculed by James Clyburn , the House majority whip, on Thursday. 

Speaking to CNN’s John Berman, the Democrat derided the comparison of coronavirus measures to slavery.

“I think that statement by Mr Barr was one of the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, god-awful things I have ever heard,” Mr Clyburn said. 

“It is incredible the chief law enforcement officer in this country would equate human bondage to expert advice to save lives.”

Speaking at a Constitution Day celebration event in Michigan on Wednesday, Mr Barr sought to compare strict coronavirus lockdown measures with arrest and slavery, as he dubbed those restrictions an “intrusion” on American civil liberties.

“Putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest,” said Mr Barr about orders put in place across a swathe of states to slow the coronavirus spread since March.

“Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” he added, amid debates over a nationwide lockdown.

Mr Clyburn argued there was no comparison between the two, saying “Slavery was not about saving lives, it was about devaluing lives,” 

“This pandemic is a threat to human life and the experts, the medical experts, the scientists are telling us what it takes to respond successfully to this pandemic.”

According to CNN, Mr Barr’s comments on Wednesday came when he was asked about the "constitutional hurdles” of preventing a church from meeting during the pandemic.

The attorney general allegedly launched into a four-minute speech criticising state governors’ executive actions to control the virus, to which the crowd cheered.

“Most of the governors do what bureaucrats always do, which is they...defy common sense,” said Mr Barr. “They treat free citizens as babies that can't take responsibility for themselves and others.”

His complaints come as the American death toll nears 200,000, with the pandemic reported to have hit America’s Black, Hispanic and Asian communities the hardest.

At the same time, the attorney general has called on federal prosecutors to aggressively target demonstrators involved in protests that followed the Minneapolis killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in May, reported the Associated Press.

He reportedly urged prosecutors to charge protesters accused of violent crimes even when they could be tried in a state court, where the conviction would likely be lesser.

The Trump administration has so far seen 300 arrests for federal crimes amid protests calling-out the country’s racial injustices.