The White House has confirmed that President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) withdrew her candidacy on Tuesday, Fox News reports.

According to a report by the Washington Post, Gigi Sohn, who was nominated by the White House in October 2021, cited “incessant, deceitful, and vicious assaults” from cable and media industry lobbyists as the reason behind her decision to withdraw her candidacy.

Sohn’s past social media posts and positions on specific matters had caused controversy, and the Senate had never held a floor vote on her confirmation.

During the Obama administration, she had played a leading role in designing net neutrality, a fundamental component of progressive telecommunications policy, which was overturned by the free-market proponents in the FCC under former President Donald Trump.

Sohn expressed that the attacks on her had a significant impact on her and her family.

On Tuesday, Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, announced that he would not support Sohn’s confirmation due to her track record indicating her inability to lead the agency in an impartial manner, as reported by Fox News.

Written by staff