Richard Arnold: US correspondent on Trump's cabinet appointments and demise of Rudy Giuliani

President-elect Donald Trump has quickly begun forming the list of people he wants to serve in his cabinet. 

Cabinet comprises of at least 16 positions – the Vice President and head of 15 executive departments. 

US correspondent Richard Arnold tells Mike Hosking Trump is rolling out names in rapid fire, picking oil industry executive-climate denier Chris Wright as energy secretary and Robert F Kennedy Jr as health and human services secretary. 

Plus, there is a big pile of trouble for former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani. 

Giuliani has been required to hand over some personal property to election workers who won a $148 million defamation case against him. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right stateside, Richard Arlold morning.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
To you, Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
They are flowing thick and fast. These appointments are they?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
They Siddly are now and the President elect knows how
to get the headlines, no doubt about that either. Trump
is rolling out these names in rapid fire for the
cabinet picks with an oil industry executive, Climate de Nia,
Chris Right as Energy Secretary and R k Junior for
Health and Human Services the other day. Still it is
the choice of Matt Gates' for Attorney in General, the
chief justice officer of the country that still is drawing

(00:29):
the most flat. Gates, of course, quit the Congress last week,
just two days before there was to be a vote
on whether an Ethics Committee investigation should be released into
those accusations that Gates had sex with a seventeen year
old high school girl who attended one of these supposed
sex and drug parties at Gates is said to have
taken part in. Speaker Mike Johnson says he wasn't sure
if that report should be given over to senators who

(00:53):
are called on to have confirmation hearings for the Attorney
general's role. Then the Speaker went off for dinner at
Trump's Mara Lago resorting. He came back surprise with exactly
the opposite point of view.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Wh stick to the tradition and not release a report
on a foreign member of the House because it would
open a dangerous pendor's block.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Keep it all secret, says to speaker, at least a
current speaker who got the job. Of course, after a
foot the speaker was ousted in a campaign led by
the aforementioned Matt Gates. Kevin McCarthy says.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Give you the truth why I'm not speaker.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
It's because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me
to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a
seventeen year old.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Well, some of the details are starting to come out.
Despite all of the political maneuvering Congressman Tony Gonzalez, Senator
Mark Wwaye Mullen, and Fox News commentator Dagan McDowell on Gates,
all of them Republicans say, in part.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
This, I served with some real scumbacks.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Look, Matt Gates, he paid miners to have sex with
them at drug parties.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
We had all seen the videos he was showing on
the House floor that all of us had walked away
of the girls that he had slept with. He'd brag
about how he would crush ed madicine and chase it
with with an energy drink so he could go all night.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
I would compare him to that toddler that we've all
seen at the family barbecue in toilet paper. What shoving
shoving cheerios up his nose.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, there's a raged opinion for you from Mary's esteem
for Maccolda's been time. ABC News here is reporting that
the seventeen year old is telling her story to some
others outside the political world. She's known in a twenty
cent for multiple days, multiple days of testibity before the
ethics panel. So I would guess there's a lot. Well,

(02:37):
it's going to emerge now since last week R. F.
Kennedy Junior has been chosen for Health Secretary. He is,
of course a prominent anti vaxer Trump aide Howard Lutnik,
whom Elon Musk now is pushing to have the Treasury roll.
Was us on CNN the other day if there was
any chance, any chance of Kennedy being chosen as Health secretary?
Of course, dot he said, laughing when apparently he meant,

(02:58):
you know, of course, RFK has a colorful history, including
dumping the bear carcass in Central Park and Zone. Kennedy
believes childwood vaccines can cause autism. He's pledged to remove
fluoride from drinking water. Well Pete hegsins, the Trump peak
for Defense secretary has been found to have paid a
settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault.
Senator Marke Wayne Mullen says he is, for the moment

(03:20):
a supporter of the Fox News former morning show. On
the weekend's co host, he says of the situation that
he's facing now.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
But as of right now, I start with yes, But
can I be moved off of that? I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
So here's a solid endorsement for you.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
And then we come to a man who, as far
as we know, doesn't have a new job, but he's
got a pile of trouble. This is Al Rudy.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Big pile of trouble, once known as America's Mayor, New
York Mayor Rudy New York Mayor Rudy Giuliaiani has hit bottom.
He's just been required to hand over to two volunteer
election workers from twenty twenty, Ruby Freeman and San Moss
some of his personal property on a court order that
includes his shares in his Upper East Side apartment in
New York City, a blue merced Is convertible once owned

(04:05):
by Lauren McCall that he'd been driving, and some luxury watches,
including one owned by his grandfather. The court ordered him
to pay in all one hundred and fifty million dollars US.
So let me see that means he still owes about
one hundred and forty eight million.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
See Wednesday Richard Arnold state. So, by the way, as
I alluded to Ryan earlier on well Worth, having get
access to the Sydney Morning Herald Trump won headlined Trump won,
the celebration started, then the trouble began. It's very good,
but it's got eighteen people who don't want to be
named for obvious reasons. But they're inside maryl Argo at
the moment. As I mentioned last week, they're sick of Elon.

(04:40):
This is within the Trump camp. They're sick and tired
of Elon, who's crazy, crazier than the rest of them.
But the eighteen people speaking on anonymity or under anonymity,
their main concerns gates. Their claim is that the campaign
itself was well run. It was slicker than last time,
noticeably slicker than last time, run by better people. But

(05:00):
the moment they won, Trump went nuts and he starts
firing off names left, right and center, one of which
is Gates. And the problem is that one of the
people quoted here says they cannot name more than twenty
Senators who would even think of voting for Gates, so
that nomination's dead in the water because they argue that
some senators still take their job seriously. But it's a

(05:20):
good piece, well worth looking up. If you from got time.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
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