Nominee withdraws
Lack of GOP support over abuse allegations, hiring of immigrant in country illegally spur decision
Fast-food executive Andrew Puzder abandons his bid to become the next secretary of labor, becoming the first of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees to fail.
By Alan Rappeport
WASHINGTON — Fastfood executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination to be labor secretary Wednesday as Republican senators turned sharply against him, the latest defeat for a White House besieged by infighting and struggling for traction even with a Republican-controlled Congress.
The toppling of one of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks was a victory for Democrats, unions and liberal groups that had been attacking Puzder’s business record and his character since he was chosen in December.
Conservative publications, including National Review and Breitbart, had also expressed resistance, zeroing in on Puzder’s employment of an immigrant who was in the U.S. illegally as his housekeeper.
And records from his 1988 divorce, disseminated Tuesday night by opponents, resurfaced spousal abuse accusations that made some Republican senators uncomfortable. His ex-wife had recanted those accusations, but senators from both parties privately screened a videotape from “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that featured her laying out the charges while in disguise.
The opposition from Republicans was broad, and the reasons were varied. Among senators who had expressed concerns were John Thune of South Dakota, Rob Portman of Ohio, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Tim Scott of South Carolina — more than enough to scuttle the nomination.
A spokesman for Puzder,
George Thompson, said his treatment was “an unprecedented smear campaign.”
In a statement, Puzder thanked the president and those who supported him for their optimism about the “policies and new thinking” he would have brought to the job.
Puzder’s withdrawal came two days after the resignation of Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Earlier this month, his nominee to be Army secretary, billionaire financier Vincent Viola, withdrew his name from consideration, saying he could not disentangle his business connections. And his secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, was confirmed only after Vice President Mike Pence cast a tiebreaking vote.
The Senate must still vote to confirm Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., to be Trump’s budget director, over the loud objection of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who took to the Senate floor again Wednesday afternoon to accuse the hardline conservative of being anti-military.
“This is not personal. This is not political. This is about principle,” he said. “This is about my conviction as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee that providing for the common defense is our highest constitutional duty.”
Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, faces a revolt by EPA employees scrambling to block him. Collins declared her opposition to him Wednesday.
Yet Republicans blamed Democratic obstruction, not the quality of the president’s choices, for the arduous confirmations.
“I think when you have to put all this energy into an unreasonable nominations process it takes away the energy that could better be used for other things,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
Democrats cheered Puzder’s withdrawal as a victory for working Americans. The Labor Department regulates workplace safety, enforces wage and hour laws, maintains unemployment and payroll data, and is generally seen as an advocate for workers.
Puzder, at the helm of his fast-food company, ardently opposed the Affordable Care Act, cast a skeptical eye on minimum wage and overtime rules, and pledged an assault on regulations that he said in his withdrawal statement would “put America’s workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity.”
Some critics also cast him as a sexist, denouncing fast-food advertisements he championed that featured bikini-clad women eating monstrous hamburgers.
“The simple truth is that given his relationship to employees at the companies he runs, he was not fit to lead a department responsible for defending workers’ rights,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called on Trump to nominate someone who supported the rights of workers rather than suppressed them.
“Puzder should never have even been nominated to lead the Labor Department, and Senate Republicans clearly recognized this, too,” Schumer said. “The fact that someone so anti-labor was even nominated shows how far President Trump is from where he campaigned.”
As the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, owner of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast-food chains, Puzder had come under intense criticism from Democrats and liberal groups who accused him of mistreating his workers and supporting automation in the workplace. The intense scrutiny of his personal life compounded his troubles.
His hearing was delayed as he sought to extricate himself from his business and investments. Democrats, who organized screenings of the video of his wife detailing her allegations of abuse, were preparing to make his marriage an issue and to question him about his company’s TV ads. However, as recently as last week he had said through a spokesman that he was “all in” to move forward.
Despite the building backlash, the White House and Republican leadership tried to rally support around him last week, arguing that no nominee was perfect.