Washington Examiner Republicans are renewing their efforts to sink President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, pointing to allegations he made racially insensitive remarks about black ATF agents and to an undisclosed appearance on Chinese state TV.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, blasted David Chipman’s nomination during the committee’s executive business meeting on Thursday, according to prepared remarks obtained by the Washington Examiner, as the 11 GOP members of the committee have urged Democratic Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois to haul the Biden nominee back in front of the committee to answer their questions.
“It seems every day there’s new information showing how unfit he is for this role. Yesterday we learned that Chipman failed to disclose a TV hit he did with a Chinese government station. Think Russia Today but Chinese Communist. The video is on the internet for anyone to see. In it, he simply nods along as Chinese propagandists paint the United States as a violent war zone,” Grassley said in his planned remarks. “His positions in the video don’t seem all that different from what he says often, but it’s one thing to criticize the laws and culture of your country to a domestic political audience, it’s another thing entirely to do so in the service of a foreign antagonist. The Chinese Communist Party isn’t interested in reforming America’s gun laws — it’s interested in weakening its primary global competitor by sowing political discord.”
Chipman reportedly failed to disclose to the Senate his appearance on Chinese state TV when he went on China Global Television Network in December 2012 to talk about the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting.
Grassley added: “Just last week we also saw corroboration of allegations that Mr. Chipman had made racially insensitive comments while in Detroit. The chairman shot the messenger, as it were, by dismissing the corroboration as having come from a pro-Second-Amendment website, but the fact is that there are numerous agents, current and former, on and off the record, who attest to these allegations — as well as other problems with Chipman’s time in Detroit.”
Chipman spent 25 years with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and went on to be a senior policy adviser at Giffords, a gun control advocacy group co-founded by former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords. Chipman was nominated by Biden in April, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in May, and received an 11-11 committee vote in June.
Last month, The Reload, a firearms-focused publication, reported that “multiple ATF sources back up the existence of a complaint alleging” Chipman “made racist comments during his previous stint at the agency.” The anonymous ATF veterans told the outlet “they heard the accusation that Chipman denigrated black ATF agents up for promotion.”
Grassley and 10 Republicans sent a late July letter to Durbin arguing for a second Chipman hearing, saying, “First, we have allegations that Mr. Chipman made racist statements about the abilities of African American ATF agents, the existence of which allegations have been confirmed by current and former ATF officials. Second, these allegations imply that an important field assignment in Mr. Chipman’s career was one that he allegedly was both forced first to take and then to relinquish.”
Durbin responded on Monday by rejecting the GOP’s request for a second hearing, defending Chipman, and attacking The Reload.
“From the moment that President Biden nominated Mr. Chipman — a 25-year law enforcement veteran — to lead ATF, Senate Republicans and opponents of commonsense gun safety measures have launched vitriolic, baseless attacks against this highly credentialed nominee,” Durbin wrote. “The Committee will not hold a second hearing on Mr. Chipman’s nomination based on baseless allegations by anonymous sources published in venues with an obvious agenda.”
In a written question from Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, about whether he was ever the subject of any Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints while at ATF, Chipman responded, “During my 15 years as a manager at ATF, I received two EEO complaints. Both complaints were resolved without any finding of discrimination and no disciplinary action was taken against me.”
Grassley and the other Republicans followed up with a Wednesday letter to Durbin, saying he was ignoring their concerns and again calling for more scrutiny of Chipman, saying Durbin should not “take corroborated allegations of racism lightly.”
The Republicans added: “Politics is supposed to stop at the water’s edge. It’s shocking that Mr. Chipman’s gun-control agenda not only didn’t, but it eagerly found a willing host among the Chinese communists.”
Chipman’s Senate questionnaire lists nearly four dozen media appearances and quotes he has given, but not his appearance on Chinese state TV. He did note that “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.”
