The Department of Justice is not playing with blue states that refuse to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Governors in Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee have vowed to reopen their states by Friday, April 24. Texas reopened on Monday, April 20. But Democratic governors and mayors are still resistant to reopening.
During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Attorney General William Barr said the DOJ might join lawsuits filed by residents against blue states if they don’t reopen fast enough.
Signaling that the lockdown was a massive mistake, Barr said, “We have to give businesses more freedom to operate in a way that’s reasonably safe. To the extent that governors don’t and impinge on either civil rights or on the national commerce – our common market that we have here – then we’ll address that.”
The moves comes as conservative business owners took to the streets to protest the forced lockdowns around the country. The CDC’s flawed death toll prediction models have failed spectacularly, and the DOJ promised to look into draconian rules enforced by Democratic mayors and governors.
“We’re looking carefully at a number of these rules that are being put into place,” Barr said. “And if we think one goes too far, we initially try to jawbone the governors into rolling them back or adjusting them. And if they’re not and people bring lawsuits, we file statement of interest and side with the plaintiffs.”
