GOP Senator Calls Out Chipman For CCP Propaganda

Unedited automatic transcript:

I tell my colleagues here why i’m going to vote against three nominees and for two nominees i’d like to discuss another person that’s still before the committee that we haven’t taken action on and that is mr chipman and i’m going to comment on that because there’s been some recent press reports about his nomination and about the individual and i think everybody understands that there’s a big gulf between what republicans think about mr chip‐ man versus what democrats think about it my colleagues and i have sent chairman durbin two letters requesting that he be brought back before the committee for further questioning as we noted in our most recent letter it seems every day there’s new information concerning how on fit this individual for to be head of atf yes‐ terday we learned that chipman failed to disclose a tv hit that he did with a chinese government station now imagine if a trump nominee had gone on the program called russia today to criticize obama policies that is what this nominee and his interview was like the video is on the internet for anyone to see in it he sim‐ ply nods along as chinese propagandists paint the united states as a violent war zone his position in the video his positions don’t seem all that different from what he says often but it’s one thing to criticize the laws and cultures of your country to a domestic political audience it’s another thing entirely to do so in the sore service to foreign antagonists a country that puts uyggers in concentration camps a country that executes people to harvest their organs and sell them the chinese communist party isn’t interested in reforming america’s gun laws it’s interested in weakening its primary global competitor by sowing political discords this should be obvious and yet apparently it wasn’t ob‐ vious to chipman he needs to address this and perhaps he would have last time had he not left the appearance of the in this video off his questionnaire just last week we also saw corrobora‐ tion of allegations that mr chipman had made racially insensitive comments while in detroit the chairman shot the messenger as it were by dismissing the corroboration as having come from pro sec‐ ond amendment websites but in fact is that there are numerous agents current and former on and off the record who attest to these allegations as well as problems with chapman’s time in de‐ troit so to be very clear we didn’t call for further committee action until these rumors were corroborated by independent re‐ porting now that we have that corroboration we should hear from chipman about his time in detroit and the chairman should help us get the secret documents we need from the justice department to see what really happened at the time period in question sunshine is the best disinfectant after all as i’ve said many times my constituents are very concerned about mr chapman and it is a sen‐ timent that i also share but these corroboration allegations and his chinese propaganda video go beyond mr chipman’s policy views to character effectiveness and judgment if the administration is going to insist on this nominee to lead atf i think the committee needs at a minimum to ask him more questions now turning to to‐ day’s nominees and as i started out mr chairman judicial cannons aside or not i will be voting for myrna perez while she seems very sincere in her progressive views i think she’s pretty clear‐ ly the most outspoken liberal judicial nominee we’ve seen in this administration and of course that’s saying something senator schumer spoke of how she will forcefully advocate for righteous‐ ness of her causes to other judges on the second circuit that doesn’t sound like the role of a judge to me that should be dis‐ qualifying chairman dermond said her article published the night before her hearing slamming voting integrity legislation was the sort of thing he could say in the speech on the senate floor as senator cotton observed that doesn’t make the point my friend the chairman intended to make she’s not running for partisan politi‐ cal positions the fact is that miss perez did nearly 20 events or articles on highly controversial questions of law and policy while being vetted by the justice department for this position she’s even attacked an amicus brief by committee republicans weeks before she knew her nomination would be in front of us did she not care at least trying to look impartial did she just as‐ sume she could count to 51 without us was she so passionate she couldn’t help but speak her political mind to me there is no ex‐ planation for the truly brazen behavior that doesn’t reflect poorly on ms perez’s judgment and caused me to question her protestations that she’d put all this aside as a judge she couldn’t stop being an advocate up through the day before her nomination hearing i’ll also be voting against judge miriam and miss cobb while they are qualified i appreciated how forthright they were in answering my questions their background in liberal politics and advocacy are simply too much i will also be voting against matt olson like many of president biden’s justice depart‐ ment nominees mr olsen had an admirable career as a non‐political public servant until president trump took office then it’s like the switch got flipped and he suddenly was full‐blown partisan a member of the resistance i’m skeptical that return to power that switch will get flipped back lastly i will be supporting judges pan and williams as i said at her herring i remember judge pan from her previous nomination i think her time as a prosecutor and a judge make her well qualified for this position she doesn’t have an activist reputation judge williams very similar her work as a magistrate doesn’t appear activists like many of the others we’ve seen in the committee this year and are time defending mu‐ nicipalities and police departments give her good diversity of perspective thank you very much thank you senator grassley and thank you for the french lesson this morning we appreciate that very much mr chairman