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Sen. Patty Murray: Relentless, tireless opposition to Trump Cabinet picks finally pays off. U.S. Labor Secretary-designate Andrew Puzder withdraws, a day before a Senate confirmation hearing before a committee where Murray is top Democrat. Members of the committee had watched an Oprah tape in which Puzder’s ex-wife, wearing a whig, described spousal abuse. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Sen. Patty Murray: Relentless, tireless opposition to Trump Cabinet picks finally pays off. U.S. Labor Secretary-designate Andrew Puzder withdraws, a day before a Senate confirmation hearing before a
The moment Sen. Patty Murray has waited for came Wednesday afternoon as the Senate engaged in another intense nomination debate, this time over President Trump’s pick to head the Office of Management and Budget.
U.S. Labor Secretary-designate Andrew Puzder had withdrawn his nomination, a day before the confirmation hearing that was certain to be embarrassing. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., yielded to Murray.
“There is some good news today for workers and women and families in America,” said Murray. She noted that Puzder, CEO at Hardee’s, had fought against raising the minimum wage and described his own employees as “the best of the worst.”
Any viewer of Senate debates on C-SPAN, particularly the all-nighter over U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has found Murray an insomnia antidote.
The “Gentle lady from Washington” has fought against a succession of Cabinet nominees. Murray is part of the Senate Democratic leadership. She is, in a closely divided Senate, senior Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, through which such nominations as DeVos and Puzder had to pass.
She helped mobilize broad public opposition to DeVos: The billionaire advocate for school vouchers and charter schools was confirmed by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Mike Pence appearing to break the tie.
Members of the HELP Committee were exposed this week to a 1990-vintage Oprah tape in which his ex-wife, wearing a disguise, accused Puzder of spousal abuse.
She later repudiated the allegation, but the video was compelling. Murray called it “deeply troubling.”
The wall of Republican support for Trump nominees has twice sprung leaks. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, both advocates of bipartisan cooperation, voted against confirming DeVos.
Collins and Murkowski, along with four other Senate Republicans, had refused to commit to vote for Puzder.
Puzder had a dossier that Democrats could use. There was the spousal abuse charge, and his mentoring as a young man by a Las Vegas mob lawyer who treated the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund as a piggy bank. As CEO of CKE Restaurants, owners of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., he disparaged his own workers and opposed raising the $7.25 federal minimum wage.
The restaurants’ risque TV ads became an issue, along with longtime employment by Puzder of an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper, and his failure to pay taxes for her work until he was nominated to sere in the Cabinet.
So, Murray has won one, and celebrated in true Murray style.
“From the start, it’s been clear that Puzder is uniquely unqualified to serve as Secretary of Labor — from the pride he takes in objectifying women, to the insulting comments he made about his own workers and stories of mistreatment at his company, to a vision of the economy in which workers get squeezed so those at the top can boost their profits,” she said.
“Workers and families across the country spoke up loud and clear that they want a true champion for all workers in the Labor Department.”
Will they get one, or just a billionaire without so much baggage?
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