Patterico's Pontifications

9/9/2021

Biden Gives Up on Chipman as ATF Nominee

Filed under: General — JVW @ 9:19 am



[guest post by JVW]

Some welcome news today:

The White House is set to withdraw David Chipman‘s nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as soon as this week, according to multiple reports.

Two sources with knowledge of the decision told the Washington Post of the White House’s plans to rescind the nomination of the senior policy advisor to the gun control group Giffords. Several outlets have since confirmed the report.

Chipman faced universal opposition from Senate Republicans, including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell who asked the White House to withdraw their nomination of the “anti-gun extremist.”

Senator Angus King (I., Maine) told the administration and Senate Democrats that he would not support Chipman’s nomination, while other moderate senators had remained non-committal on the appointment, according to the report.

A senior administration official reportedly told CNN that the White House decided to withdraw the nomination because “we do not have the votes,” adding that it expects to place Chipman in “a non-confirmed job in the administration.”

For a guy whom the lazy media was happy to portray as a moderate respite from the loony left wing of the Democrat Party, Joe Biden has certainly carried a lot of water for divisive social policies in his first nine months as President. Beyond the nomination of the hyper-partisan Xavier Becerra at HHS, the bullying hypocrite Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, and the race-obsessed liar Kristen Clarke as assistant attorney general (all of whom were sadly pushed through sometimes with a bit of GOP help), President Biden has supported a Sandersesque dream budget which would set this country on a big government course that would be awfully difficult for a future administration or Congress to change. He has also adopted the worst aspects of the timid Obama foreign policy, and run them through the toxic sluice of his own ignorance yet unshakable belief that he has some sort of keen insight. So with that said it is welcome news to see that one of his worst nominees is being shown the exit door. More on Mr. Chipman:

Opponents to the nomination had expressed concern over Chipman’s past record on gun control. He spent 25 years at the ATF and, since retiring as a special agent in 2012, has worked as an anti-gun activist for several gun control groups.

He has claimed that he supports bans on “assault weapons” because they are nearly “identical to those used by the military.” However, Chipman declined to define what “assault weapon” meant when asked to do so by Senator John Kennedy (R., La.) during his confirmation hearing.

Chipman argued that the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons had “mixed results,” though studies show that the ban had negligible effect on criminality, which dropped after the law sunsetted.

During the COVID pandemic, he called on American governors to unilaterally shut down gun shops, arguing that “people who hoarded the guns might decide six months from now — once they see no zombies around, but they’ve run out of tuna and beef jerky — that they need the money to buy food.”

He also likened first-time gun owners to Joe Exotic of Tiger King, saying, “they might think that they’re die-hard, ready to go, but unfortunately they’re more like Tiger King, and they’re putting themselves and their family in danger.”

Moderate Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) warned that Chipman, if confirmed, would likely do “significant damage” to the relationships the ATF has with sporting and gun groups.

David Chipman has that special mixture of arrogance and self-righteousness leavened with a sneering contempt for the citizens he has been appointed to serve. Washington DC (and Sacramento and Albany and Austin and Denver, etc.) are full of this kind of twerp and it is important that they never be put in a position to implement their rancid ideas.

Despite having such a small Senate majority, Joe Biden has managed to push through more of his nominees than any first-term President in my memory. Even his old boss, who in his first term had a huge Senate majority to do his bidding, ran into trouble with the controversial nominations of Tom Daschle to HHS and Bill Richardson at the Commerce Department, both of which were withdrawn. So given that President Biden has been able to see his more troubling picks all the way to confirmation (with the exception of Neera Tanden, thankfully), it’s nice to note that an evenly-divided Senate is willing to set rules on how far it will go.

– JVW

15 Responses to “Biden Gives Up on Chipman as ATF Nominee”

  1. I’m not pleased that Joe Biden plans to find an administrative position for Mr. Chipman which is not subject to confirmation. I guess Joe Biden owes a huge favor to gun control groups, and Mr. Chipman has nothing of value to offer the private sector despite a 25-year career at ATF.

    JVW (ae9ddd)

  2. I would have liked to have seen how Bernie would have voted if it had gone to a vote. Just for the fun of it, as a change from Tales of Wells Fargo.

    For the comrades from Rio Linda, Vermont has no gun control.

    nk (1d9030)

  3. Between the utterly unlikable Sneera Tanden, Chipman and the other psychos, Biden displays the lack of good judgment he’s known for.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  4. Annoyingly, this colorful quote out of the National Review article:

    During the COVID pandemic, he called on American governors to unilaterally shut down gun shops, arguing that “people who hoarded the guns might decide six months from now — once they see no zombies around, but they’ve run out of tuna and beef jerky — that they need the money to buy food.”

    was not linked. (This was NR’s failing, not JVW’s). But rest assured, this clown actually said this back at the beginning of our COVID two weeks to bend the curve period. See https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/mar/28/gun-shops-as-essential-debated-20200328/

    We don’t need our leaders to talk like twitter wise guys or be so openly contemptuous of people exercising a constitutional right.

    Appalled (721968)

  5. I would have liked to have seen how Bernie would have voted if it had gone to a vote.

    Yeah, me too. If memory serves, the Bernard Sanders of 2016 still voted as a Vermonter where guns were concerned and, for example, opposed holding gun manufacturers liable for misuse of their product by criminals. But I think that by 2020 Comrade Sanders was fully a national figure and had moved more towards Democrat orthodoxy on gun control issues.

    JVW (ae9ddd)

  6. Another display of the severely compromised Biden’s lack of judgment…

    https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/biden-nsc-director-is-fellow-at-ccp-funded-ash-center/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  7. speaking of looney, get ready for the 9th circuit to revert to form thanks to biden voters

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/bidens-newest-judicial-nominees-include-three-9th-circuit-2021-09-08/

    these will be the same biden voters complaining about nutcase 9th circuit rulings in about a year or so

    all the looney judicial appointments coming in the next fours years are what you wanted

    JF (e1156d)

  8. This guy seems competent, but I don’t like his policy preferences at all and I’m glad he didn’t get confirmed.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  9. Biden should have withdrew him months ago. He never stood a chance, and good thing he didn’t.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  10. That statement by Chioman about people realizing there are no zombies but now wanting to hold up people was very dishonest and was probably an attempt to justify an idea promoted by his employers. Not sincere at all.

    Since their idea would only prevent new people from becoming gun owners he had to come up with a way keeping gin sops closed would prevent much harm.

    So they’re buying gins for a reason he mocks. Chaos = zombies, He knows nothing bad is notably happening right away, so he says these same (stupid?) people will later use their guns to steal, as the economy deteriorates.

    It’s made up out of whole cloth.

    All that that tells you is that person is willing to say anything that supports a policy position of whoever he’s working for.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  11. the bullying hypocrite Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, and the race-obsessed liar Kristen Clarke as assistant attorney general

    But let the GOP put up a Christian or a solid conservative and you’d think the world was ending. I bet that Biden fired all the USAs, something that it seems only Democrats are allowed to do.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  12. speaking of looney, get ready for the 9th circuit to revert to form thanks to biden voters

    Those 3 judges replace 3 Clinton appointees.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  13. Kevin, he asked almost all of them to resign. Notable exceptions were Durham who’s investigating the investigation of Russian interference and the AUSA for Delaware who’s investigating his son Hunter.

    Time123 (9f42ee)

  14. The Ninth Circuit got looney because Carter appointed 15 new judges when it was expanded, among them Stephen Reinhardt.

    nk (1d9030)

  15. “David Chipman has that special mixture of arrogance and self-righteousness leavened with a sneering contempt for the citizens he has been appointed to serve”
    That sounds like a James Comey letter of recommendation

    steveg (2c7127)


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