Puzder departs after a meeting with Trump at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Nov. 19, 2016. (Mike Segar/Reuters)
Andy Puzder, President Trump’s nominee for secretary of labor, is expected to withdraw his name from consideration, NBC News, Fox News and CNN reported Wednesday afternoon.
Puzder’s reported withdrawal comes a day after his Senate confirmation hearing was set to begin.
Earlier Wednesday, multiple reports surfaced that GOP officials had advised the White House that Puzder — chief executive of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast-food chains — lacked the votes needed for confirmation.
A top Republican official told CNN that at least four GOP senators would definitely vote against Puzder’s confirmation. The Washington Post reported that number to be at least seven.
Puzder’s nomination faced a series of hurdles that resulted in the most Republican resistance to date of Trump’s Cabinet picks. Among other things, Puzder’s ex-wife reportedly leveled abuse allegations in 1990 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and he admitted to employing an undocumented worker.
According to Politico, Lisa Fierstein, Puzder’s ex-wife, said on the show that he told her, “I will see you in the gutter. This will never be over. You will pay for this.”
During the episode, entitled “High Class Battered Women,” Fierstein appeared alongside other alleged victims of abuse in disguise, wearing large sunglasses and a wig and using an assumed name. Fierstein later retracted her allegations of battery as part of a child custody agreement.
A spokesman for Puzder dismissed the release of the “Oprah” tape as an attempt to smear him.
“[Puzder and Fierstein] are close friends today and often spend time together, but none of that context seems to matter to Andy’s critics,” the spokesman said in a statement to Politico. “Perpetuating these retracted 30-year-old allegations and an impulsive decision to appear on a talk show is nothing more than a desperate attempt to tarnish Andy Puzder at the expense of Lisa and their family.”
Also on Wednesday, the conservative magazine National Review came out against Puzder’s nomination. The magazine’s editors argued that Puzder’s pro-immigration views made him unacceptable.
“We have our disagreements with President Trump’s economics, but the emphasis on the interests of lower-income workers who are in competition with immigrant labor is important. Trump should find a labor secretary who agrees with it and can be trusted to try to vigorously effect policies reflecting it,” National Review opined.
Reports: Andy Puzder expected to withdraw nomination for labor secretary
