President Joe Biden is stinging today after being forced to withdraw the nomination of David Chipman to head the ATF. That’s to be expected. The White House expended a lot of political capital trying to make the Chipman confirmation happen, only to have to withdraw it not just because of Republican opposition, but opposition from within his own party.
However, the president appears to remain undaunted by the setback.
In fact, Biden reportedly plans to find another nominee for the post.
Well, this is going to turn into another trainwreck for the Biden administration.
After all, this is an administration that doesn’t really get why people opposed Chipman in the first place. They may believe it was pure partisanship, but he nominated a gun control activist to be the chief enforcer for gun laws in this country. Remember how the left lost their mind over a school choice advocate (Betsy DeVos) heading the Department of Education? The difference is that the Department of Education isn’t a branch of law enforcement.
Because of that, though, expect Biden to make a similar mistake.
He won’t focus on a long-time law enforcement officer dedicated to enforcing laws with impartiality or anything of the sort. He’ll probably find another anti-Second Amendment zealot and have yet another confirmation blocked.
That’s not a good look for a sitting president.
The thing is, it doesn’t have to be.
If Biden were serious about wanting someone as permanent director of the ATF, he’s got to recognize that he’s going to have trouble without at least some Republicans supporting his pick. He’d do well to sit down with a pro-Second Amendment Republican–say, someone like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky or Sen. Mike Lee of Utah–and try to find someone they can agree on. While it’s Biden’s job to nominate people, there’s no shame in working with the opposition to find the middle ground.
But that would be admitting that Republicans should have a voice in government, and we all know the president isn’t a fan of that sort of thing.
