Hometown newspaper: Puzder ‘uniquely unqualified’ to serve as Labor secretary

Andrew Puzder's hometown newspaper is urging the Senate to reject his nomination as Labor secretary, arguing he is "uniquely unqualified" to serve in the role.

“He is brash, outspoken, misogynistic, combative and uninterested in quarantining himself from his financial interests,” the St. Louis Dispatch editorial board wrote.

“Like many of [President] Trump’s nominees – Rick Perry at the Energy Department, Betsy DeVos at Education, Ben Carson at Housing and Urban Development – he is almost uniquely unqualified for the duties of the office to which he seeks confirmation.”

Puzder, a former St. Louis attorney and the CEO of CKE Restaurants, has a record that runs almost counter to the mission of the Labor Department, the editorial board argued. The op-ed points to his opposition to minimum wage increases, as well as an ongoing legal battle that CKE Restaurants is currently fighting in California.

CKE is being sued over a company move to switch salaried restaurant managers to hourly wages, after an Obama administration decision to increase overtime pay for some salaried workers was presented last year, though it has yet to go into effect.

The board also takes aim at Puzder’s past employment of an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper. Puzder admitted to employing the woman on Monday, saying that he fired her after finding out she was not legally permitted to work in the U.S. and paid back taxes.

Still, that admission sparked criticism of the fast food CEO, and several Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have stayed mum on whether they will vote to confirm Puzder.

The AFL-CIO and other labor organizations sent a letter to Trump on Thursday, calling for the president to drop Puzder’s nomination. Puzder, the letter said, did not exemplify a nominee with respect for the country’s workers or its labor laws.

Senate Minority Leader Charles SchumerCharles SchumerTrump outburst puts Gorsuch in a corner Schumer: Trump should see 'handwriting on the wall,' drop order Booker: 'No confidence' on DeVos's support for civil rights office MORE (D-N.Y.) also put pressure on Trump to withdraw Puzder from consideration on Thursday.

“They ought to withdraw the nomination of Puzder before he further embarrasses this administration and further exposes the hypocrisy of President Trump, saying one thing to the workers of America, and then doing another,” Schumer said.