President Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, David Chipman failed to disclose key information during his Senate hearing. Chipman didn’t disclose a TV appearance he made in China which was very possibly used as propaganda by the communist state to cover up a mass stabbing of school children.
Fox News reports:
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.
CGTN, which reaches 30 million households within the U.S., “is an arm of China’s propaganda machine. It is controlled by the Communist Party and serves as part of what Mr. Xi has called Beijing’s ‘publicity front.’” as described by the New York Times. In 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) required CGTN to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.
According to DOJ, in order to project the U.S. from covert foreign influence, FARA “requires certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities or other activities specified under the statute” to disclose periodic updates to the department.
On the same day as the Newton Massacre, there was a mass stabbing of 23 children at a school in China’s Henan Province. As Reuters reported at the time, “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.”
The Chinese government reportedly ordered its central propaganda department to “downplay” the Henan attack by focusing news coverage on the massacre in the U.S.
Chipman never discloses his 2012 appearance on CGTN in written responses to the Senate’s question for the record however he did list at least 16 pages of previous interviews and quotes he provided to media.
The Senate has not yet set a firm date to vote on Chipman’s nomination, however Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin just doubled down on his support for the radical nominee.
