oversees this nomination. portabl potentially would have played a role in a hearing that was set for tomorrow. the reality is they don t want this to go to a hearing and a vote if they know he s not going to pass here on capitol hill. so a senior gop source telling me that, quote, it s dead, the nomination, and this is what s been generating it. we ve been dealing with conversations around this nomination really for weeks now. there were rumors that he was going to withdraw, that had started many weeks ago almost from immediately as stephanie was walking us through a little bit of some of these issues around his paperwork. things along those lines. but this is not, i wouldn t say, unexpected and i do think he s in a much different category than all of these other nominees where you ve seen intense partisan opposition but republicans have by if large gone along with it. kasie, peter, stay with me. i want to go to elliot engel, a new york congressman on capitol hill, a democrat as well
this nomination. z stephanie? reporter: you know, this is somewhat extraordinary. andy puzder had been a donald trump backer throughout the campaign. he was one of the few ceos you saw sort of do media and speak on donald trump s behalf. and some had said when me accepted the nomination from donald trump, he was enthusia enthusiast enthusiastic, but then it took him an enormous amount of time to even get his paperwork in. i heard from some who were close to him saying he wasn t prepared for the amount, the heavy load he was going to have to submit. it was something like three, maybe four times, it was puzder who delayed getting his pap paperwork in, where the media often thought, oh, maybe things are sitting with the ethics department and that wasn t the case. if you think about the many issues around him, it wasn t just progressive in the left or labor groups pushing back against him because of how employees were necessarily treated or didn t support raising minimum wage. he was als
breaking news to report. labor potential labor secretary andy puzder is no longer a potential labor secretary. he is going to withdraw his name from nomination, according to sources who are talking to nbc news peter alexander and kasie hunt. andy puzder s nomination hadn t gotten to the confirmation stage or the confirmation hearing stage. they were still waiting on quite a bit of paperwork. there s been controversy surrounding his nomination. specifically because the department that he wanted to lead, the labor department, he didn t necessarily believe in a federal minimum wage hike, he also expressed belief earlier on that robots should enter the workforce. there was also on top of all of that, some pretty serious allegati allegations. oprah released a tape, an interview with andy puzder s ex-wife where she accused him of assaulting her. we want to go now straight to stephanie, one of our msnbc anchors, to tell us a little bit more about what happened with
bolts, liook at what the confirmation hearings have been like for other nominees, look at what bet spi sy devos went thro. andy puzder, going through all this, many have complicated finances. it s unclear what took him so long to get his paperwork in, but for many, almost inexcusable. we said we re bringing in all these very wealthy people, one would think they have the resources to get all that paperwork in, but for weeks, remember, the fact that there are potentially these allegations about spousal abuse, and there had been pushback about advertisements he had in the past, you know, bikini clad women eating hamburgers. it could have been noise he simply wasn t up for. stephanie, thanks so much for getting to a phone so quickly to help us understand this. let s go to peter alexander, kasie hunt, two nbc folks who are able to confirm this story. peter, first, to you, what have you learned? reporter: the bottom line, you just reported here on msnbc, we have now heard from a senior a