President Joe Biden’s candidate for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Gigi Sohn, withdrew her name from consideration on Tuesday. This incident comes as yet another stumble for the democrats as they struggle to find suitable nominations for any post these days, indicating that there are either too much egos at play in the Biden Administration or there aren’t enough qualified members in his party.
Surprisingly, it’s neither. It seems that Sohn lacked the particular backbone, suited for politics. In a statement acquired by The Washington Post first, Sohn stated that the constant, dishonest, and cruel attacks on her character and career as an advocate for the public good over the past 16 acrimonious months since Biden originally nominated her for the job had taken a significant toll on her and her family.
She remarked that the strong cable and media firms have successfully chosen their regulators with the help of their cronies in the Senate, which is a sad day for America and democracy.
In a statement released earlier on Tuesday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he would vote against Gigi Sohn for Democratic Commissioner on the FCC, prompting this announcement from Sohn.
Manchin said he could not support Sohn’s nomination to the FCC, citing the bipartisan opposition to her nomination due to her years of partisan activism, inflammatory statements online, and work with far-left groups. He urged the Biden Administration to put forward a nominee to unite the party rather than drive them apart.
According to fair.org, in October 2021, Biden proposed Sohn, a former adviser to FCC Chair Tom Wheeler, appointed by the Obama administration, to fill the position on the five-member FCC board empty since January 2021.
She declined to provide the Senate with information on a legal matter involving the non-profit streaming service Locust, which caused her candidacy to be put on hold after her confirmation hearing in December 2021. Conservatives had already been skeptical of her impartiality due to her history of left-leaning social media posts (critiquing the police, conservative politicians, and media outlets) and her founding of a digital policy think a group with money from George Soros.
With the Democrats’ new 51-49 Senate majority, Biden renominated her in January 2023, Axios said.
Following his appearance before the Senate Commerce Committee on February 14, certain Democratic senators and Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.) were relatively chilly on the nomination while having voted to move Sohn’s nominee out of committee. Taxpayer advocacy organization Americans for Tax Reform claims that the committee vote ended in a “14 to 14 deadlock,” making it unlikely that the nominee would be brought before the entire Senate for a vote.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a non-ministerial federal organization responsible for overseeing the interstate transmission of radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable signals within the United States and among its possessions. The agency is responsible for executing and implementing federal rules and regulations about the United States’s communications sector, and it is under the supervision of Congress.
The president nominates, and the Senate confirms the FCC’s five commissioners. A maximum of three of the five commissioners can be from the same political party.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Biden administration is currently deadlocked with two Democrats, two Republicans, and one empty seat, according to The Hill. This prevents the agency from advancing some portions of Democrats’ agenda, such as pushing forward action to reinstate Obama-era net neutrality laws.