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Minimum Wage Protesters Against Puzder Nomination Don't Know Who He Is

January 13, 2017

Protesters who support raising the minimum wage were demonstrating in Boston on Thursday against President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for labor secretary, Andy Puzder, but they could not identify him by name.

The conservative research group America Rising Squared posted a video online Friday showing three protesters who could not identify Puzder.

"I was just wondering, do you guys know who Andy Puzder is?" the tracker asked.

One of the female protesters shook her head "no" and another female protester responded, "Nah, I don't know who that is." The third protester shook her head unsure of who Puzder is.

The AR Squared tracker then asked a fourth woman with pink hair and she said that she did know who Puzder is, but she never offered an explanation.

"Yes, but I can point you to someone who really knows," the woman said.

The protesters were part of the "Fight for $15" movement, which advocates for a $15 minimum wage and has vowed to protest Puzder's nomination for labor secretary. The group has mobilized fast-food workers nationally to protest him.

Puzder is an executive in the fast-food industry, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

Puzder is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, the California-based parent company of the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. burger chains. The millionaire businessman has been a vocal critic of government regulations that he says have strangled the restaurant industry, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Puzder, who arose as a surrogate to Trump during the campaign, is also against raising the federal minimum wage above $9 an hour and is an advocate of repealing Obamacare, arguing it imposes excessive costs on employees.

Puzder's nomination hearing was originally scheduled for Jan. 17, but it has been pushed back due to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee rescheduling another nomination hearing for that day.

"Mr. Puzder's hearing was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 17 but will have to be moved due to the rescheduling of Mrs. DeVos' hearing to the 17th at the request of Senate leadership," an aid to Chairman Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) told the Hill on Friday.

Betsy DeVos is Trump's pick for education secretary.