Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on the response to Donald Trump's nomination of Matt Gaetz to be his Attorney General

Donald Trump's latest nomination for roles in his Cabinet has drawn shock from some Republicans.  

He's nominated Congressman Matt Gaetz to be his Attorney General.  

Gaetz has previously been investigated over allegations of sexual misconduct. 

US correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking it's causing backlash.  

He says multiple Republicans are scathing about their colleague — with one reportedly using a swear word when he found out. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Richard Arnold, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Oh, I mean Gates is of all the mad appointments,
Gates would be you know, mega mad, wouldn't he? Yeah,
this is the one that's causing the most backlash. Gates
for Attorney General, top law enforcement officer, although that is
far from the only ruckers. But Gates has been tapped
to lead the very Justice Department he said should be abolished,
and which investigated Gates for the alleged sex trafficking of

(00:26):
a seventeen year old girl that probe ended without charges,
but the House Ethics Panel pressed on with other inquiries
about Gates and alleged sexual misconduct and elicited drug use,
and for allegedly accepting improper gifts and so on and on,
said Gates before Trump named him for the top Justice
Department post.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Maybe I should serve as Attorney General of the United States.
If necessary, I'd fire every little kicker at the j.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Edgar Hoover Building, Gates has said, overtime, all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
I don't care if it takes every second of our
time and every ounce of our energy. We either get
this government back on our side, or we defund and
get rid of abolish the FBI, CDC, atf DOT, every
last one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
If they do not come to heal Pick shut down
the entire government. When he heard of the Gates Pick,
Republican Mike Simpson said, are you bleeping me? Won't use
his exact language. Multiple Republicans are scathing about their colleague.
Many a teed off the Gates led the Bush to
remove Kevin McCarthy as Republican Speaker. McCarthy, well, he's still

(01:35):
seething about that, suggesting Gates should be locked away.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
At end of the day, he probably shouldn't be on
the streets.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Another Republican calls Gates Pick insane. Yet another describes this
choice as unbelievable. One defense industry official top politico that
he had concerns about to other people. Former National Security
Advisor John Bolton, who in his time was I guess,
slammed as being out on the free of his party's
right wings of Gates.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
It must be the worst nomination for a cabinet position
in American history. I think this is something that falls
well outside the scope of deference that should be given
to a president in nominating members of his senior team.
Gates is not only totally incompetent for this job. He
doesn't have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude,

(02:26):
and notwithstanding how difficult it may be politically, this is
a nomination the Republican Party should oppose.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Gates also has just quit the House of Reps. Because
the ethics panels report on this and his activities was
due for voting a couple of days, so that inquiring
now is done since he's no longer in the Congress,
so getting out by the skin of his teeth. There
is a push to make that inquiry public during his
confirmation hearings in the Senate, if those hearings actually happen.
As we've been saying, Trump wants the Senate to adjourn

(02:55):
for ten days at least at the Saturday next year,
so he Trump and Jews, Gates and anyone else that
he wants to as a virtual dictator without any Senate
approval on these nominations. The new Senate leader John Soon
says today, we'll look into those procedures, but yeah, this
has head on fight with the Republican dominated Senate. This
is Republicans also just one control of the House of Reps.

(03:16):
But with nine seats still underside that they have the
slimmest majority. Meantime, some other picks causing a feuer include
Tulsey Gabbart as head of National Intelligence. This is a
person who gets to see all of America's secrets, but
Gabbart is a well known conspiracy theory individual. She went
to visit serious dictator Assad without any US government approval,

(03:38):
and also declared that the US could have stopped the
Russian war in Ukraine if only if only Washington was
nice at the putin about NATO. There have been accusations
that she is not loyal to the United States, so
will American allies continue to share intel with an operation
she is heading. There are a number of pro putin
people in the Trump ranks, including Pete Hegseeth, who has

(03:58):
been named as Trump's pick for Defense Secretary, running the Pentagon,
perhaps the biggest enterprise in the world. He's been on
Fox News weekends as a second or third stringer, doing
all all of the silly things that morning TV honchos
on the weekends do, like throwing a sharpened axe at
a board on Fifth Avenue one time, missing that board

(04:19):
and nearly cutting off the arm of a drummer who
was standing behind the thing.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
They're testing their skills with the acts.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Who's going to win this battle in the I'm putting
my money on Clayton.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh, sorry for nearly killing the guy on live TV.
Let's put that bloke in charge of the entire US
military and all its weapons when he's never run well anything,
says Democrat and Smith who's been on the US Arms
Services Committee.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
President comes to you and says, hey, we've got a
situation in the Middle East. What are our options? If
you've never actually been in a situation room or in
the DoD and analyzed what those options are, making it
up off the top of your head.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Well, Haigsaith was in the Army National Guard and he
knows about soap. Soap, yees soap. Here is his ad
force soap in the shape of hand grenade.

Speaker 6 (05:11):
She see one man Army loves the country and makes
damn good soap. I've used them all, and I love
these new brands like gun Smoke smells like American firepower,
or Girka refined Bourbon and tobacco Leaf, or how about
Patriot and the Pine tar Bar. There's more of them too.
You can get him in a variety pack. Each of
them shaped like a grenade soap on a rope.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Now they run the Pentagon here gunpowder fragrance soap.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
See Richard Donold State Side. Jack Smith, by the way,
special counsel. He's been busy. He's trying to he's been
in court asking the Florida case to be wound up.
That's the bits and pieces of classified documents. He wants
that wound up. And he's also been in DC for
the Gen six case. He wants that wound up as well,
and that'll be presumably before he gets fired.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
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