Andrew Puzder is blaming the “biased nature” of the news media for forcing him to withdraw last month as President Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Labor.
In an interview on Thursday, Puzder targeted Politico for breaking the story about an old episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in which Puzder’s ex-wife accused her then-husband of abuse.
“Well, Politico was the worst,” he told Fox Business Network. “They [Winfrey] did an interview with my former wife and she actually called me when the interview ran [in 1990] in tears because she believed she’d been taken advantage of.”
Politico ran several stories on the tape, including a transcript in which Puzder’s ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, claimed she had been abused and said she struggled talking about it publicly.
“In fact, when they announced my withdrawal, there was a tweet from someone who was in the newsroom, one of the reporters at Politico, saying that they broke out in applause,” Puzder said. “So, you could imagine the biased nature of the coverage with respect to this issue. They really were the worst.”
In mid-February, a web producer for Politico wrote on Twitter, “Cool moment. Entire Politico newsroom giving [reporter] Marianne Levine a round of applause.” Attached was a link to Levine’s story on Puzder’s ex-wife and the video tape.
A spokesperson for Politico brushed off the criticism in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Politico stands by our reporting, which was based on extensive interviews, documents, and research,” he said.
