President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) did not disclose his TV hit on a Chinese propaganda network to the Senate, Fox News revealed on Wednesday.
In 2012, David Chipman joined the China Global Television Network to talk about the U.S. response to the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, Chipman worked for Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-firearm group dedicated to sparking more gun control in the United States.
During the interview, he highlighted how he believes there will be more shootings “unless we do something about it.” According to Fox, Chipman’s interview on U.S. failures to contain gun violence was used by the communist propaganda machine to distract from “a mass stabbing of 23 children at a school in China’s Henan Province.”
While Chipman provided at least 16 pages detailing past media hits to the Senate, he did not list the propaganda network as one despite the fact that the United States began classifying CGTN as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 2019.
“I have done my best to identify all interviews given, including through a review of my personal files, and searches of publicly available electronic databases. Despite my searches, there may be other materials that I have been unable to identify, find, or remember,” Chipman wrote in a disclaimer to the Senate.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz condemned Chipman for the TV hit, which he said raises “very serious concerns.” The nominee has shown a “consistent pattern of focusing on partisan priorities of Democrats at the expense of fulfilling our responsibility to the American people,” Cruz said.
“Did Mr. Chipman know that he was going on a communist propaganda show?” Cruz asked. “Did he know that it would be used as propaganda to tear down America? Did he know that it would be used as propaganda to cover up the atrocities in Communist China? We don’t know. We don’t know because this committee hadn’t had the chance to answer them. And what the committee leadership is saying is they don’t care. Doesn’t matter. Truth doesn’t matter. We got a partisan agenda to do. Don’t bother us with actually doing our jobs.”
Cruz also slammed Demoract Chairman Dick Durbin for denying the GOP’s cries for Chipman to face a second hearing among allegations of racism during his time as an ATF agent.
“Apparently, Senate Democrats do not care if he made racist comments in his role in office as a supervisor. They do not care if he created a racially discriminatory and hostile environment by making racist comments,” Cruz said. “Now, he may have a defense on this. But if he does, we don’t know it because this committee can’t be bothered to have a hearing and ask him. So what this committee is saying is that allegations of racism, if you’re a partisan Democrat, no problem at all. Not even worth asking about.”