Rod Blagojevich congratulated President Trump on Tuesday for saving “millions of lives” with his leadership on the coronavirus outbreak, while urging Mr. Trump to keep an eye on officials he says are violating civil rights with heavy-handed social distancing edicts.
Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat who had his 14-year prison sentence for corruption commuted in February, said he’s seen abuse of power up close, and he said some mayors have gone too far in dealing with the virus.
“Undoubtedly, the local officials in question are motivated by good intentions, but the overzealous practices of some of them are wrongheaded and dangerous,” the former governor of Illinois wrote in a letter to the president. “If they can continue to ’go too far,’ as Attorney General Barr has recently pointed out, they will be like an untreated tumor, continue to spread — killing our freedoms.”
Mr. Blagojevich heaped praise on Attorney General William Barr who on Monday directed U.S. attorneys to be on the lookout for state or local coronavirus policies that infringe on religious, free speech or economic civil liberties.
Mr. Barr likened some local stay-at-home policies to “house arrest,” and said while they may have been justified in the early days of the crisis, they’re not a viable long-term solution. The attorney general said Justice Department lawyers should be ready to challenge those plans in court.
Mr. Blagojevich had some policies he thought bear watching.
For one, he said police checkpoints ordered Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot appear to be “another excuse to justify policing in predominantly black and brown communities.” And he compared the New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s call for neighbors to report lockdown violations as a “snitch hotline.”
Mr. Blagojevich likened the crackdowns to the post-World War I Red Scare and post-World War II McCarthyism.
“Let us heed those lessons and not repeat those same mistakes,” he said.
Mr. Blagojevich opened his letter with effusive praise for Mr. Trump, saying “thanks to your strong leadership and decisive actions addressing this public health crisis, millions of lives were saved.”
The battle over restrictive coronavirus prevention measures has been contentious across the country. Protests have sprung up in areas of the country with residents voicing their frustration over shutdown orders that have closed businesses and halted the economy.
It has been a particularly acrimonious fight in Mr. Blagojevich’s home state of Illinois.
A state lawmaker Monday won his fight to block a 30-day extension of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order. An Illinois judge ruled Mr. Pritzker had overstepped his authority.
On Tuesday, Mr. Pritzker, a Democrat, appealed the decision saying it put Illinois at risk.
Mr. Blagojevich served eight years of a 14-year prison sentence for attempting to sell a Senate seat. That sentence was commuted earlier this year by Mr. Trump.
The two had appeared together on Mr. Trump’s reality television show, “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010, but Mr. Blagojevich was fired by Mr. Trump before the final round.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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