Gigi Sohn Speaks Out On Her Doomed FCC Nomination

Gigi Sohn

For over a year, Gigi Sohn stayed relatively silent as she faced a barrage of attacks over her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, which had languished in the Senate since President Biden tapped her in October 2021.

But her plans began to shift, she said, after speaking with the White House and a top Senate Democrat in the days before she would eventually announce her withdrawal.

“They basically said, ‘There's no path forward for you,’” Sohn said of her talks with Biden administration officials and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), whose panel was reviewing her nomination. “At that point, what was the point?”

Now, in her first public interview with The Washington Post, Sohn is speaking out against what she called a “concerted, coordinated campaign” to block her nomination and hobble telecommunications regulators. 

And she’s teasing plans to write a book about her punishing 16-month confirmation battle and the resistance she and other appointees have faced.

“I definitely feel like I’ve got a book to write. There's been a bunch of stuff that's happened over the past 16 months … that is going to make people's eyes bug out.”

A former Democratic FCC staffer and longtime consumer advocate, Sohn faced broad opposition from Senate Republicans and conservative groups who called her a partisan and criticized her past remarks and social media activity on Fox News and policing. 

However, Sohn’s withdrawal came just hours after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key swing vote, announced plans to oppose her. Sohn said while Manchin appeared to have “swooped in to take credit” for her pulling out, she “never counted on his vote.” 

“I owed a duty to me and my family to move on, and this was very, very difficult on me emotionally,” she said.