San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Biden withdraws nomination for head of gun agency
When President Biden nominated David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in March, he described it as an important step toward ending the “embarrassment” and “epidemic” of gun violence in America.
But conceding that he could not muster the 50 votes to get the nomination through the Democratic-controlled Senate, Biden stood down. It was a stunning defeat for his guncontrol agenda and a major victory for the gun lobby, which had campaigned for months against the nomination.
“We knew this wouldn’t be easy,” Biden said in a statement last week announcing his decision to abandon the nomination of Chipman, a former ATF agent known for his blunt denunciations of the gun lobby. “But I have spent my entire career working to combat the scourge of gun violence, and I remain deeply committed to that work.”
However, many of the president’s legislative proposals — including closing loopholes in the national background check system, eliminating exemptions given to gun manufacturers in civil liability cases and banning assault weapons and highcapacity magazines — have been blocked in the evenly divided Senate.
Biden, who chose Chipman under pressure from former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other gun-control proponents, needed the support of all 50 senators who caucus with the Democrats and the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris to get Chipman confirmed.
In recent weeks, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, told Biden administration and leadership officials that he could not support the nomination, citing blunt public statements that Chipman had made about gun owners, people familiar with the situation said.
Even a phone call from Biden last month asking King to drop his objections — and reminding the senator that Chipman was himself a gun owner — was not enough to save the nomination, according to a senior administration official.
Over the past few days, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who had originally suggested he was open to the pick, told the White
House that he had also soured on the selection, Democratic aides said.
“I knew this confirmation process would be difficult,” Chipman said in a statement, “and while ultimately we weren’t successful, it remains essential that ATF is led by a confirmed director who is accountable to the public and places no special interests before the safety of our children and our communities.”
Chipman’s supporters had long been concerned that the White House, preoccupied with cutting a bipartisan infrastructure deal for much of the spring and summer, had not pushed back hard enough against a coordinated effort by the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun organizations to portray the nominee as a radical bent on undermining Second Amendment rights.