WASHINGTON: Andrew Puzder, President Donald Trump’s labour secretary nominee, withdrew from consideration Wednesday amid growing resistance from Senate Republicans centred primarily on Puzder’s past employment of an undocumented housekeeper.
Puzder’s fate amplified the deteriorating relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill, where bipartisan support grew Wednesday for expanded investigations into ties between Trump, his presidential campaign and Russian officials.
The White House, including Trump, offered no comment on Puzder’s withdrawal nor any indication of whom the president would nominate in the restaurant executive’s place.
Puzder issued a statement saying he was “honoured” to have been nominated.
“While I won’t be serving in the administration, I fully support the President and his highly qualified team,” he said.
A top Trump campaign supporter, Puzder had attracted widespread criticism regarding his business record and personal background. He was set to testify Thursday at a confirmation hearing that had been delayed for weeks to allow for the completion of an ethics review of his vast personal wealth.
Critics have railed against Puzder’s positions against minimum-wage increases and more generous overtime benefits.
Some have also accused him of sexism, pointed to a rancorous divorce that involved later-recanted allegations of domestic abuse as well as racy TV ads run by his restaurant chains that featured scantily clad women eating hamburgers.
Puzder was quoted in Entrepreneur magazine in 2015 as saying, “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis.” He said the racy commercials for Carl’s junior, one of his companies, were “very American”.
Democrats also said Puzder had disparaged workers at his restaurants. He was quoted by Business Insider as saying he wanted to try robots at his restaurants, because “They’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case.”
But it was Puzder’s hiring of an undocumented worker for domestic work — as well as his support for more liberalised immigration policies — that pushed several Senate Republicans away, they said.
Puzder had told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions this month that he had been unaware of the housekeeper’s immigration status when he hired her and that he paid federal and state back taxes after terminating her employment.
Similar revelations have forced Cabinet nominees to withdraw dating to at least Bill Clinton’s presidency, but it was less clear this year, in the unpredictable, rule-breaking era of Trump, whether that norm would apply.
In the end, the revelation was particularly troubling to lawmakers because of the job Puzder was seeking: running the Labor Department.
Puzder has spent much of his career in the restaurant industry speaking out against wage and labour regulations.
The former commercial trial lawyer has been a staunch opponent of rules finalised by the Labor Department last year — and since put on hold — that would have expanded the number of people eligible for overtime pay. He also has been critical of substantially increasing the minimum wage, arguing that it could push companies to cut jobs and encourage businesses to invest more money in automation.
As a result, Puzder’s nomination immediately came under intense scrutiny from unions, labour groups and consumer advocates who worried the executive would prioritise businesses over workers.
Democrats cheered Puzder’s withdrawal and sought to take credit for helping pressure Republicans to withdraw support.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Democrat-New York, called Puzder’s decision “a victory for the American worker. Puzder should never have even been nominated to lead the Labor Department, and Senate Republicans clearly recognised this, too”.
He called on Trump to nominate someone who “champions workers’ rights rather than suppresses them”.
