Fresh off the confirmations of Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is preparing to deliver another memorable performance this week as the Senate questions President Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, Andy Puzder.
In advance of the hearing, the Massachusetts Democratic senator published a hostile 28-page letter addressed to Puzder, demanding answers to 83 questions on a wide variety of topics ranging from his salary to his burger-advertising strategy to executive orders regarding federal contractors.
It is important to note there is nothing wrong with asking tough questions of presidential nominees, but it’s obvious that Warren here isn’t just exercising her duty to advise and consent. She’s already running for president, as evidenced by her report’s language.
On its first page, the letter claims a review of his career completed by Warren’s staff “reveals” Puzder got rich by “squeezing” workers out of wages and benefits. Then it proceeds to charge him with holding a “sneering contempt” for his employees.
The letter wades into racial and sexual discrimination charges, with Warren declaring “racial discrimination” is “pervasive” at CKE Restaurants, the company Puzder presides over as CEO.
The letter also attempts to make the case that “advertisements featuring scantily clad women eating hamburgers in sexually alluring postures,” characterized by Puzder as “beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis,” resulted in “tangible harm” to CKE employees.
By publishing the letter, Warren, who’s raked in more than $400,000 in donations from labor unions over the course of her brief career, earned headlines declaring she “zeroed in,” “took aim,” and “fired away” at Puzder. The liberal website Mother Jones proclaimed, “Elizabeth Warren Just Found Her Next Fight.”
It’s hard to argue with that.
Warren has been a notably outspoken critic of various Trump nominees.
In November she referred to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as “the Forrest Gump of the financial crisis,” arguing his nomination should, “should send shivers down the spine of every American who got hit hard” by the recession.
After several outlets circulated video of her confirmation hearing exchange with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Warren dramatically stated, “It is hard to imagine a less qualified or more dangerous person to be entrusted both with our country’s education policy and with a trillion-dollar student loan program.”
The Detroit Free Press referred to Warren’s questioning as “perhaps the sharpest exchange” of the entire hearing. Fusion straight up called it “vicious.”
Before the final vote on DeVos’ confirmation, Warren took to the floor of the Senate to slam her one final time, remarking, “The Republicans have made it clear no matter her experience, no matter her radical views … They will ram this nomination down the throats of the American people sideways.”
Then came the vote on Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
A flurry of fawning coverage followed Senate Republicans’ vote to curtail Warren’s grandstanding against the confirmation of Sessions. The hashtags #LetLizSpeak and #ShePersisted spread like wildfire on social media.
Last week, USA Today reported that more than $250,000 worth of campaign donations to Warren poured in after the ordeal.
Basking in the flood praise from her progressive base, Warren is pursuing the same strategy as she prepares for Puzder’s hearing. The elevated tone of her letter demonstrates she’s learned from her own successes this winter.
A longtime favorite of the Left, Warren, who was vetted as a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton last year, clearly appears to be angling for the nomination of her party in the 2020 presidential primary.
Working her way through the confirmation hearings, Warren is steadily honing her ability to manipulate the media, mobilize supporters and energize progressives.
Expect her audition to continue as Puzder’s hearing commences Thursday.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
