According to reports, President Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) failed to disclose a...
According to reports, President Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) failed to disclose a media appearance on Chinese state media to the U.S. Senate, which “may have been used as propaganda by the communist state to cover up a mass stabbing of children.”
“Biden’s ATF nominee David Chipman appeared on a Chinese state-run media network, China Global Television Network (CGTN), previously known as CCTN, in December 2012 to discuss the government’s response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history that killed 28 people and injured two,” reported Fox News.
Fox News added that CGTN reaches 30 million households in the U.S. alone, and “is an arm of China’s propaganda machine,” according to The New York Times.
“It is controlled by the Communist Party and serves as part of what Mr. Xi has called Beijing’s ‘publicity front,’” The New York Times added.
Chipman appeared on the network in 2012, and did not disclose this appearance “in written responses to the Senate’s questions for the record.” The interview discussed the Newtown Massacre, with Chinese media covering the shooting and widely ignoring the Henan school attack which occurred on the same day.
As Reuters reported in 2012, “On the same day as the Newtown shooting, a crazed man broke into a school building in central China, stabbing and slashing 23 pupils in an attack that, although not fatal, lit up the Internet — but barely registered with official state media.”
Fox News added that “Chipman included a disclaimer before listing his media appearances, writing, ‘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.’”
“Earlier this week, news reports indicated that Mr. Chairman had failed to disclosure to our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee a TV appearance he made several years ago,” stated Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell. “And this wasn’t just any TV appearance. Mr. Chipman had granted the interview to a propaganda network overseen by the Chinese government.”
“The Senate has spent quite enough time flirting with this profoundly misguided nomination. The American people deserve a trustworthy steward leading the ATF, with a record of respecting their rights and respecting his or her colleagues,” McConnell concluded. “It is long past time the Biden administration revisit this decision and send us somebody who fits that description.”
Chipman raised eyebrows in late May when he admitted to Senator Ted Cruz that he supported a ban on AR-15s, the most popular rifle in the country.
“Mr. Chipman, a minute ago Senator Whitehouse asked you if any of your views on guns are out of step with the majority of the American people,” Sen. Ted Cruz said. “The AR-15 is one of, if not the most popular rifle in America.”
“It’s not a machine gun, it’s a rifle,” Cruz continued. “Your public position is that you want to ban AR-15s, is that correct?”
“Senator, thank you for the question, and thank you for our visit yesterday, and offering me a Dr. Pepper, it made me reminisce about my time in central Texas,” Chipman responded. “But now to your question, with respect to the AR-15, I support a ban as has been presented in a Senate bill, and supported by the president.”
“The AR-15 is a gun I was issued on ATF’s SWAT team,” Chipman added. “And it’s a particularly lethal weapon, and regulating it as other particularly lethal weapons, I have advocated for.”
“As ATF director, if I’m confirmed, I would simply enforce the laws on the books, and right now there is no such ban on those guns.”
“So, you want to ban the most popular rifle in America,” Cruz fired back.
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