President Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, Andrew F. Puzder, withdrew his nomination Wednesday amid a growing wave of bipartisan opposition.
Puzder, a fast-food executive who opposed the Affordable Care Act and raising the minimum wage and has strongly promoted the use of automation in the workplace, has been accused by liberal groups of being aligned with interests of company owners instead of with those of workers. Conservative publications expressed anger over his employment of an undocumented immigrant as his housekeeper. A number of Senators from both sides of the aisle based their resistance to Puzder on allegations of domestic violence made by his ex-wife made during an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show.
A spokesman for Puzder said the nominee had been the victim of “an unprecedented smear campaign.”
Republicans who opposed Puzder’s nomination include John Thune of South Dakota, Rob Portman of Ohio, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Tim Scott of South Carolina.
The U.S. of Labor (DOL) fosters and promotes the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits and helping employers find workers.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said Puzder should never have been nominated to head up the Labor Department, “and Senate Republicans clearly recognized this, too.” Mr. Schumer said. “The fact that someone so anti-labor was even nominated shows how far President Trump is from where he campaigned.”