Months before the #MeToo movement would roil media and politics last year, President Trump’s choice for labor secretary, Andy Puzder, withdrew his nomination amid allegations of domestic abuse. Now, Puzder, who fiercely maintains his innocence, is watching #MeToo unfold with some frustration.
Asked in a Friday interview with the Washington Examiner whether it worries him that men accused of misconduct in the era of #MeToo are assumed to be guilty, Puzder replied, “Yes, it does. It bothers me.”
“An assumption of guilt bothers me whether it’s African-Americans who are being assumed guilty, whether it’s women who are being assumed to be lying, or whether it’s men who are accused,” he emphasized.
Then CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., Puzder withdrew his nomination on Feb. 15 of last year, one day before his hearing was scheduled to begin. His ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, had accused him in the late 1980s of domestic violence, and the allegations resurfaced after Trump selected Puzder to head the Labor Department.
Though she once accused him of having “assaulted and battered [her] by striking her violently about the face, chest, back, shoulders, and neck, without provocation or cause,” Fierstein now insists vehemently the allegations were false. “I regretted and still regret that decision, and I withdrew those allegations over thirty years ago,” she said in 2016. Fierstein even sent a letter to senators as they deliberated his nomination, clarifying, “Andy is not and was not abusive or violent. He is a good, loving, kind man and a deeply committed and loving father.”
For Puzder, watching #MeToo play out has recalled personal experiences. “You know, I have been falsely accused, and there were two, three years there where my ex-wife hadn’t withdrawn the allegations where, you know, all I could ever say was ‘look, it just didn’t happen.’ And there was somebody out there claiming that it did happen. So, I know how frustrating that can be,” he said.
What’s more frustrating, Puzder insisted, is that even though “everybody who would know, both my wife and me, there’s nobody else, are acknowledging that what I said from the beginning was true, that this just didn’t happen,” many still treat him as though he was proven guilty.
“I don’t know what to do. It’s very frustrating. Nobody will ask me about it. I can go on numerous news shows, and nobody ever asks. Even on MSNBC,” Puzder lamented.
The first person to call the former CEO after he withdrew his nomination, according to Puzder, was Ivanka Trump. “Ivanka Trump is a wonderful person. She is a wonderful person. And it actually pains me to see the criticism she gets in the press,” he said.
“She was one of the first people who called me after I was nominated and was the first person to call me, with a long call, after I withdrew my nomination,” remembered Puzder.
In the introduction to his recently released book, The Capitalist Comeback, Puzder reflected on the entire controversy, writing, “The whole incident wounded Lisa deeply … She called me regularly during the confirmation process, apologizing in tears.”
“I was and am grateful to her for her integrity and courage in stating and restating the truth despite the frustration and embarrassment she suffered,” he explained.
Though he doesn’t have anything lined up, and is grateful for the opportunity to travel the country promoting his book, Puzder, who talks to the White House “fairly regularly,” still wonders about the impact he could have had in the administration. And he would be happy to serve under Trump in the future — so long as the position doesn’t require a confirmation hearing. “I wouldn’t put [my family] through that again. If it were me, I would do it because I’d really like to do the hearing,” he divulged.
Unlike some targets of misconduct allegations, Puzder is eager to defend himself and frustrated by the lack of opportunities to do so. “I’m happy to talk about it,” he said on Friday.
