by When even the Bloomberg-funded The Trace says David Chipman’s nomination to head BATFE is in trouble, you know it is in trouble.
The article is an attempt to rally support for Chipman and to put pressure on Sen. Angus King (I-ME), an independent who caucuses with the Democrat. King has said privately he is a “no” on Chipman.
They are now saying Chipman’s confirmation was always “a long shot.”
The Trace is now trying to portray the Chipmans as victims of “anonymous bloggers and social media sleuths”.
Tara Chipman told USA TODAY that she retired to avoid the conflict of working under her husband’s leadership or staying on in the aftermath of a failed nomination.
She cited cases of online harassment, including conspiracy theories tied to her mother, Olivia Cajero-Bedford, a former Democratic state senator in Arizona who proposed a ban on the bump stock devices now banned nationwide.
“The negative attention was more than either of us expected, especially me as a spouse,” Tara Chipman said Wednesday. “I don’t know why anyone would want a Senate-confirmed position in government.
“I feel kind of powerless because, of course, I want to go after these people, but I don’t want to do anything to endanger David’s nomination.”
It is hard for me to believe that anyone who had been in DC as long as Mrs. Chipman can portray herself as so naive. It is rather disingenuous to say the “negative attention was more than either of us expected.” She would have been piling on to a Republican nominee and his or her spouse if they were affiliated in any sort of way with the firearms industry.
State of Mainers need to keep the pressure on King just as those in Montana and West Virginia need to keep the pressure on Senators Tester and Manchin.
By the way, I am not an “anonymous blogger”. My real name is on every one of the posts I’ve made about David and Tara Chipman. It is not my fault that they have left such a large presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Wow, so now his wife is saying she wants to “go after” concerned Americans daring to raise very valid concerns about her husband’s history on the very agency he would run & she worked at? And the only thing that’s stopping her from “going after” such doubters is the fact that it would make it more likely he’d lose the potential to control an agency that has the ability to investigate them?
I just can’t fathom why people are concerned by the attitude.
Chipman’s nomination isn’t in trouble due to fake memes. It’s in trouble because he has a history of publicly showing contempt of gun owners and the industry, his colleagues have revealed very troubling observations of his behavior toward fellow agents, and his problematic policy statements even in his hearing where he claimed to not know what common firearm terms meant for regulations & laws he would be charged with enforcing.
His wife isn’t helping on the workplace ethics credibility front with the fact that she didn’t retire before or immediately after his nomination despite the obvious conflict of interest and now tells the media that she would prefer to use her energy, resources, and new found time in retirement to target those who question his nomination. If she wasn’t willing to retire immediately, then he should have declined the nomination or asked that it be held off until she could leave the agency. It sucks for her career, but it’s the reality of the situation – especially when he knew and she was in a position as his wife to likely know (or at least, it’s reasonable to infer that she did) that he did have previous accusations against him related to his professionalism with other employees at the agency.
As someone involved in activism in person, I can say with some confidence that the types of people reached who take the time to contact their senators most likely never saw some of the most over-the-top memes and internet claims of dubious merit. These people generally aren’t spending their time in those online communities. Most I interact with who take action on these things don’t even know what a meme is or how to find Reddit where Chipman made false claims in a forum about Waco. But they are seeing the clips and content mainstream gun rights groups are sharing with Chipman’s own words. She just doesn’t appear to like that a significant part of the population doesn’t agree with those words.
It’s now fair to ask David if his wife’s statement to the media is a sign that once his nomination process is over – however it turns out – whether they are planning a campaign against American gun owners and Second Amendment supporters. Because she appears to be indicating with her quote that the status of him not being confirmed or fully out of the game is the only thing holding her back from “going after” citizens. That seems problematic.
I am happy to be responsible for having any of my blog posts or commentary on others’ blogs derailing that piece of shit’s nomination, or in any other way making a wannabe tyrant’s life miserable.
Amazing, it is horrible internet sleuths and bloggers bringing her husbands actions and words to light that is the problem.
But some rando is able to contact her Senator and make an unfounded claim and we are suppose to just ditch a qualified nomination to the supreme court?
What I told my Senators was that Chipman was a horrible choice for head of the ATF because he was a lobbyist for a gun control group. We wouldn’t want a NRA board member as head of the NFA, we shouldn’t allow a lobbyist for one of the biggest gun control groups be head of the ATF either.