All the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee came out today against advancing David Chipman, Joe Biden’s nominee for ATF Director, for a general floor vote on the Senate. But because there was a split along party lines, 11-11, it comes out of Committee without recommendation.
Republicans including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) condemned him as being a rabid partisan.
“We got a nominee who supports [gun] confiscation,” Cruz explained, “Who wants to ban guns, who wants a registry, and who was appointed to carry out Joe Biden’s promise, ‘Bingo!’ We’re coming after your guns.”
Cruz proved in May during questioning just how much Joe Biden and David Chipman want to gun grab when he got Chipman to admit how he wanted to ban AR-15s. Chipman also indicated that he defined assault weapons (that he also wanted to ban) as “any rifle with a caliber above .22 that can take a detachable magazine.” So essentially that means any modern sporting rifle should be banned.
Chipman has been an anti-gun advocate for years and previously claimed that government helicopters were shot down at Waco by Branch Davidians. They weren’t.
Former ATF Acting Director Michael Sullivan came out against Chipman and warned that there was a danger if he was confirmed because of his political bias.
“I never thought the ATF should never be in a position to overregulate. That’s Congress’ job,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a lot more intent to regulate [if he’s confirmed].”
He added that if Congress is unable to pass gun reform policy, “the administration is then going to turn to ATF and expect them to execute regulatory functions that are probably beyond the scope of ATF’s legal authority potentially,” which he said he think Chipman will “be quite willing to do.”
Sullivan said that he believes Chipman’s intentions are clear: “To restrict the ability of the American public to get access to firearms.”
All the ‘moderate’ Republicans like Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) have said they will vote no on Chipman.
Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has announced he is undecided and he may not be the only one.
This is one of those decisions there may well be a consequence on if he votes in favor of such a divisive anti-gun person.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) hasn’t weighed in yet either.
So it’s pretty fair to say that Chipman’s nomination is justifiably in trouble and hopefully, Democrats like Manchin get aboard and see that it does not pay to pass through such a divisive choice.