Rep. Jordan: 'Constitution Is Not Suspended During Crisis'

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ridiculed the various restrictions being imposed by state governments to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, mocking governors and other officials for banning singing, dancing, and threatening jail for those who gather in numbers greater than a half dozen.

"This has gotten so ridiculous, and we forget this is America," Jordan, 56, who represents Ohio's 4^th Congressional District, an area stretching from northeast of the capital of Columbus to Lake Erie, told Fox News' "Watters' World" on Saturday.

"When the first lockdown happened, the attorney general of the United States sent out a memo to all U.S. attorneys . . . near the end of the memo he had a great line. He said, 'The Constitution is not suspended during a crisis.' And amen to that."

The seven-day average of diagnoses of new daily infections across the United States has risen more than fourfold since late September from 41,787 to 176,406 as of Monday, according to Worldometers.info.

The seven-day average of daily deaths has nearly doubled since late October, but is only 70% of its peak in April. With the increase in diagnoses has come a plethora of new restrictions from state officials, with particular emphasis on family gatherings for Thanksgiving.

But even without the holiday, Jordan excoriated the most severe or seemingly arbitrary prohibitions, or guidance, from singing in New Jersey, dancing at weddings in Ohio, gatherings of more than six people in Oregon and the requirement of a mask in one's home in Pennsylvania.

Jordan was particularly bothered by the restrictions placed on businesses.

"I think the small business owner who's running their business cares deeply about the wellbeing of their employees, deeply about the wellbeing of their customers, exercises common sense and good judgment," he said. "Let them operate their business, for goodness sake. Don't put all these restrictions on them, and don't shut them down, which now it seems far too many governors and mayors are attempting to do."

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