Andrew Puzder, President Trump’s nominee to be secretary of labor, withdrew from consideration Wednesday, following a tumultuous day in which video of his ex-wife’s appearance on a 1990 episode of the “Oprah Winfrey Show” dedicated to domestic violence surfaced. His first confirmation hearing was scheduled for Thursday morning.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had told the White House that Puzder did not have the votes to win confirmation.
“After careful consideration and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my nomination for secretary of labor,” Puzder said in a statement. “I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America’s workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity.”
Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants, which owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. franchises, had been a controversial pick from the start. An outspoken conservative and critic of the Obama administration’s efforts to expand workplace regulations, he was staunchly opposed by many liberal groups, especially organized labor. Senate Democrats were united against him, while several Republicans had expressed doubts about the pick.
“This was an unprecedented smear campaign. Ugly and destructive,” said George Thompson, who had been Puzder’s spokesman during the nomination process.
While it was known previously that Puzder’s ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, had appeared on the Oprah show at the time, the footage had not surfaced until Wednesday. Speaking under an assumed named and wearing a wig, Fierstein said, “Most men who are in positions like that don’t leave marks. The damage that I sustained you can’t see. It’s permanent damage but there are no marks. And there never was. They don’t hit you in the face. They’re too smart. They don’t hit you in front of everyone,” said Fierstein, who appeared on the program in a wig and under an alias.
Another liberal group, the Campaign for Accountability, had petitioned a Missouri Court to open the records of the couple’s divorce.
The video apparently caused several Republican senators who were previously wavering on Puzder to oppose his nomination. He apparently lacked enough Republican support to advance out of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
His nomination had appeared rocky for weeks. He admitted that he had hired an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper for several years but said he fired her and offered to help her legal status as soon as he found out. And the first hearing before the HELP Committee had been postponed at least four times due to committee Democrats raising questions about how he had divested his personal investments. That sparked rumors that he was considering dropping out. Nevertheless, sources close to the nominee insisted that he was all-in.
That changed Wednesday after Politico posted a 1990 clip of Fierstein appearing on Winfrey’s show along with other women had been recipients of domestic violence.
Fierstein has since repudiated the Oprah appearance, telling the committee in a January letter, “First, let me be clear. Andy is not and was not abusive or violent. He is a good, loving, kind man and a deeply committed and loving father,” she said in a letter dated Jan. 18 that was sent to HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, the committee’s top Democrat.
The Oprah appearance, she said, was the result of becoming “caught up in the notion of a free trip to Chicago and being a champion of women’s issues.”
Puzder’s critics’s cheered the news of his withdrawal. “Working people rejected Puzder because he routinely violated labor law, disrespected workers, opposed a living wage and used his position of authority to enrich himself at the expense of working people. We rallied in towns and cities across the country, flooded Senate offices with calls and e-mails and highlighted Puzder’s terrible track record,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labor federation.
Critics such as Trumka had charged that workers at CKE franchises regularly encountered abusive conditions. However, a survey of data from the Labor Department’s Wage and House Division showed that Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., had some of the lowest rates of investigations for labor violations and penalties paid for them among the major fast-food chains.
