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After Puzder Withdraws Amid Abuse Allegations, Trump Picks New Labor Secretary

Alexander Acosta, if confirmed, would become the first Hispanic member of Trump's cabinet.

Below is what happened on Trump's nineteenth day in office. You can find out what damage was done every other day so far on the Saddest Calendar on the Internet.

Just a day after celebrating the departure of former national security advisor Michael Flynn, we watched Trump's labor secretary nominee Andrew Puzder, an alleged spousal abuser who runs a restaurant company in which two-thirds of the female workers have reported harassment, withdraw himself yesterday afternoon. Less than 24 hours later, Trump has announced his replacement nominee, Alexander Acosta.

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Currently the Dean of Florida International University College of Law, Acosta served two years on the National Labor Relations Board under President George W. Bush, worked as an assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, and then served as the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida until 2009, when he became a dean. Unlike some of Trump's other cabinet picks, Acosta is not entirely unqualified. Like the majority of Trump's picks, it's likely that he will be approved.

"Acosta, if confirmed, would become the first Hispanic member of Trump's cabinet. He has been confirmed by the Senate for three prior positions, which could help smooth his path to the Labor Department," POLITICO reports.

On New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer, though, an article published this morning before Acosta's announcements argues that while he's one of the more conventional of the people Trump was considering, his record isn't squeaky-clean:

The eyebrow-raising issue is that as head of the civil-rights division of the Justice Department in the Bush administration, he was suspected of complicity in the overt politicization of hiring decisions. He seems to be the sort of standard-brand conservative that might reassure the Republican senators who ultimately torpedoed Puzder.

However, it appears that Acosta has actually made a few moves that are overtly honorable, such as defending the rights of Muslim Americans in front of Congress in 2011.

"We are a nation build [sic] on principles of freedom, and high on the list of freedoms is freedom of religious expression….Indeed, as is well known to this Committee, this freedom pre-dates our Constitution," the testimony reads.