Biden tried to put a radical gun grabber as the head of the ATF, but now the White House is pulling that nomination after they simply can’t get enough votes for him among Democrats in the Senate:
CNN – The White House will withdraw the nomination of David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, three sources familiar with the decision told CNN.
The move comes amid concerns among moderate Democrats and independent Maine Sen. Angus King — along with GOP senators — over Chipman’s past record on gun control.
“We do not have the votes. We will land him in a non-confirmed job in the administration,” one senior administration official told CNN.
Top Democrats had been quietly moving to lock down support for Biden’s nominee, but Chipman struggled to gain support because some senators questioned if his past record as an advocate for stricter gun laws would make him a less effective director.
CNN’s KFile reported that Chipman failed to disclose some interviews and events dating back to 2012 on paperwork filed with the Senate for consideration of his nomination.
In one undisclosed 2019 talk given to a law firm titled “Can the Right to Bear Arms Coexist with Gun Control?,” Chipman said his views and politics weren’t typical of most at the ATF and in law enforcement because the groups were mostly “a very conservative bunch, primarily of white men.”
This is truly a victory for Republicans in the Senate, who’ve been fighting to keep Chipman from leading the ATF for months. I’m sure Ted Cruz is extremely happy over this decision, who grilled Chipman in May and got him to admit that he wants AR-15s to be regulated like machine guns.
Tom Cotton has also staunchly been against Chipman, even releasing this ad last month:
As an aside, I believe this is the second nomination Biden has had to pull from Senate consideration. The first one was the hyper-partisan Neera Tanden earlier this year for OMB chief.