WASHINGTON — Fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, President Donald Trump’s choice to serve as the next labor secretary, said Wednesday afternoon that he is withdrawing his nomination.
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The announcement came after the Washington Post reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has informed the White House that Puzder lacks the votes to win confirmation in the Senate.
The Post report, confirmed by a senior senate aide who requested anonymity, came amid growing resistance from Republicans and conservative organizations concerned about Pudzer’s personal background and business record.
Puzder, in a statement provided to the Associated Press, said that he was "honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America’s workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity."
Puzder added that "while I won’t be serving in the administration, I fully support the president and his highly qualified team."
Puzder’s confirmation hearing was scheduled for Thursday.
At least seven Republican senators were withholding support for Puzder, a restaurant executive and Trump campaign supporter, saying that they wanted to see how the political novice fared at his confirmation hearing.
Puzder, the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, was expected to face a protracted review of his vast personal wealth, details of a rancorous divorce more than 25 years ago and revelations that his family once employed an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper.
Democrats on the panel who oppose Puzder vowed to show racy images of bikini-clad models eating hamburgers that appeared in television commercials run by his restaurant chains. His supporters were planning to eat biscuits from Hardee’s — one of Puzder’s burger chains — for breakfast while tracking the hearing from a makeshift war room.
"He’s got an awful lot of people who speak highly of him, but all these nominees have a process that they have to go through where they’ve got to respond to the questions people have on their backgrounds and their records, and I want to have that opportunity," said Sen. John Thune, S.D., the third-ranking Senate Republican, who was among those withholding support.
Although Republicans had questions about Puzder’s personal employment practices, Democrats planned to question him about allegations — long since recanted — that he assaulted his ex-wife, his past criticism of minimum-wage laws and his personnel practices, as well as advertising campaigns at his restaurant chains that women’s groups consider sexist.
As a restaurant executive, Puzder has spent much of his career speaking out against wage and labor regulations. The former commercial trial lawyer has been a staunch opponent of rules finalized 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.
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Twitter wrote that he was "glad that Mr. Puzder will withdraw his name from consideration."
"We don’t need a labor secretary who makes millions while his workers are paid starvation wages," Sanders wrote.
In 2016, Puzder was an avid Trump supporter. In addition to serving as an economic adviser to his campaign, he and his wife, Deanna Puzder, contributed a total of $332,000 to Trump’s bid, joint fundraising committees and to the Republican National Committee, according to the Federal Election Commission.
On Wednesday, Puzder’s nomination was dealt another blow when the conservative National Review announced its opposition. The publication cited Puzder’s past support for increased levels of legal immigration for high-skilled or seasonal workers — a position at odds with Trump’s calls for limited legal immigration.
"The case for his confirmation has diminished to the point of disappearing," the publication wrote in an editorial. "Not only is Puzder a representative of the worst reflex of corporate America on one of Trump’s signature issues, he is now significantly weakened."
The magazine’s editors acknowledged "the impulse of the White House and the Senate to try to bulldog through rather than to give obstructionist Democrats a scalp." But they added, "The country, and the administration, can weather a redo on this one."
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