Joe Biden’s nominees and cabinet members have an uncanny ability to come off as completely clueless.
Now Joe Biden’s ATF Director just made a laughing stock out of himself.
And you won’t believe the basic question he couldn’t answer.
There are few things gun grabbing leftists obsess over more than the idea of “assault weapons.”
So, when Biden’s Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) director was unable to answer even the most basic question about them, jaws dropped.
The mind-boggling moment came during a budget request hearing held by a House Appropriations subcommittee.
Steve Dettelbach was discussing an assault weapons ban the Biden administration would like to implement—along with the fact that he had supported an assault weapons ban during his failed 2018 campaign for Attorney General in Ohio.
Then Texas Republican Congressman Jake Ellzey threw Dettelbach a real curveball when he asked the ATF Director to define what an “assault weapon” is in 15 seconds.
Considering that he’s staked his political career—at least in part—on the Democrats’ pet project, you’d think that would be a piece of cake for Dettelbach.
Instead, the ATF director dodged the question claiming he’s “not a firearms expert.”
“I’ll go shorter than that,” Dettelbach said, referring to Ellzey’s request that he define “assault weapon” in 15 seconds. “Because honestly, if Congress wishes to take that up, I think Congress would have to do the work, but we would be there to provide technical assistance.”
“I, unlike you, am not a firearms expert to the same extent as you maybe, but we have people at ATF who can talk about velocity of firearms, what damage different kinds of firearms cause, so that whatever determination you chose to make would be an informed one,” Dettelbach added.
Biden says he wants to ban assault weapons, but his own ATF Director Steve Dettelbach can't even define what they are: "I'm not a firearms expert" pic.twitter.com/v50ElLnBG3
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 18, 2023
Of course, the reason Dettelbach refused to define what an assault weapon amounts to is that the term is merely a mechanism to provide an excuse for gun grabbers.
If they get their way, the definition of “assault weapon” will come to encompass everything down to a third grader’s slingshot.
By peddling fear instead of facts, far-left Democrats are able to keep making progress with their radical agenda without getting tripped up by pesky conservatives who want to deal in logic and abide by Constitutional standards.
While Biden’s ATF Director just came off as laughably ignorant, chances are he and his ilk will end up gaining far more ground than could possibly make sense in the end.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
