what is the white house doing to push forward the nomination of david chipman at the atf? the vote could hinge on the vote of senator angus king in maine, who has been pushed by the local maine sportsmen groups, the national gun rights advocates. has the white house reached out specifically to senator king on this issue, and is the white house fully committed to chipman , or might it go with a different nominee at some point? sec. psaki: well, i'm not going to read out private conversations with members of congress, but i will tell you that we knew this wouldn't be easy. atf hasn't had a confirmed director in six years and only one confirmed director since the position became senate confirmable. so we've been eyes wide open into the challenge from the beginning, but we are disappointed by the fact that many republicans are moving in lockstep to try to hold up his nomination and handcuff the chief federal law enforcement agency tasked with fighting gun crimes. it speaks volumes to their complete refusal to tackle the spike in crime we've seen over the last 18 months. this i

david chipman to head up alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives, a.t.f. he is another extreme activist this time against the second amendment and second amendment rights. he will be in charge of an agency, if confirmed, that's actually in charge of law enforcement with regard to firearms. as the senior senator from iowa so aptly put it, many see putting a committed gun control proponent like david chipman like putting a tobacco executive in charge of the department of health and human services or antifa in charge. count me in with the vast majority of my constituents in alaska for feeling the same way. madam president, i want to talk briefly about why i feel so strongly about this nominee and of coming down to speak out against this nominee as well. the second amendment is not some lower-class constitutional right. it's the second amendment to the constitution. in my office i actually have the bill of rights emblazeoned on the wall of my office, every word of it, to remind me and others who come there just how important this is for our country. my colleag

david chipman's views are completely out of touch with those of the american people. he opposed the supreme court case that struck down washington, d.c.'s ban on handguns, the heller case. he was party to a legal brief in the case which said the second amendment he said only protects militias. he supports bringing back the 1994 assault weapons ban which president biden often brags that he wrote. congress let that ban expire because there was never any proof that it brought down crime. during the hearing with the judiciary committee, senator cotton specifically asked mr. chipman to define what an assault weapon is. mr. chipman said an assault weapon would be whatever congress defines it as. senator cotton went on to ask mr. chipman for his own definition of an assault weapon. he said any semiautomatic rifle capable of accepting a detachable magazine above a22. well, as senator cotton rightly pointed out, this would ban most sporting rifles in america. if david chipman made other -- made our gun laws, most sporting rifles would be banned. states could ban handguns. priv

i don't think there could be any more evidence that david chipman is the wrong choice to serve as the top federal administrator of firearms policy. he has a long record of hostility to lawful gun owners, a variety of complaints to those who have worked with him in the past. how could it get worse? mr. chipman has suggested radical and sweeping steps like banning private sales that are lawful, overriding state laws, and imposing sweeping restrictions on a class of weapons he has yet to clearly define. among some current and former a.t.f. agents, he has earned a concerning reputation as, quote, a bully, an activist whose extreme views threaten to undermine the trust the agency needs to conduct oversight. and sources within the a.t.f. have also come forward describing allegedly racially discriminatory comments the nominee made in the workplace regarding personnel decisions. so even a few days ago, it was not difficult to realize this as an instance in which the senate on a bipartisan basis should take a pass, but somehow in just the last few days, it has actually gotten worse. earlier th