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life well planned. brett: you know as someone coming out of college it can be very nerve-racking not knowing what to expect, whether you'll like your job or not, whether you'll make friends, whether you'll fit in, and here i feel like it's so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work, you just feel like you're valued. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" >> hello. you are watching "the context" on bbc news. >> mr. gaetz seems to break things and when he breaks things he breaks it even more. that is some who not -- should not be the attorney general of the united states. >> there are many, many people that would be better qualified

than some of these people and less controversial but it seems as if he is being deliberately provocative with these choices to almost show up his hostile takeover of the american government. >> i do not believe in some of the negative vaccine statements that he has made. i am somewhat encouraged that over the past few weeks he has moderated those positions quite substantially. ♪ >> shares in european vaccine makers fall after donald trump nominates a leading vaccine skeptic to be his health secretary. robert f. kennedy, jr. is also labeled absolutely the wrong guy by health professionals. but donald trump says he has a great mind and will make america healthy again. we will have the latest on all of mr.rump's appointments. also on the program, while

donald trump nominates his cabinet, president biden's thousands of miles away attending the asia-pacific economic forum in peru. and a row breaks out between ukraine and germany after chancellor scholz made a phone call to president putin. the head of the biggest group of public health professionals in the united states says vaccine skeptic robert f. kennedy, jr. is absolutely the wrong guy to be america's next health secretary, after donald trump picked him for the role. shares in vaccine makers dropped after the news of the latest in a series of controversial choices for key government jobs by the president-elect. meanwhile, the republican speaker of the house of representatives has said a report by the house ethics committee into the man nominated by donald trump to be america's top lawyer shouldn't be released. matt gaetz was investigated but not charged over allegations of

sex trafficking, drug use, and misuse of campaign funds, allegations which he denies. a number of politicians though including republicans are calling for the report to be made public. while the majority of the people picked by donald trump have to be vetted and confirmed by the senate, thencoming president could to circumvent that process by making recess appointments which would allow him to get his people into position for a year without senate approval. but will he get everyone he wants? here is our north american editor sarah smith. sarah: donald trump is rewarding his most loyal acolytes with big jobs. robert kennedy junior dropped his own bid for the white house to back trump a now the president-elect wants to put him in charge of america's public health. pres.-elect trump: and he is goin to help make america healthy again. sarah: he is a provocative choice who is a vaccine derek --

he does say that he will not stop anyone from getting vaccinated. >> anybody who wants to take a vaccine, i will not get in the way. if you want a vaccine or a vaccine for your children, those vaccines will be available. >> as donald trump was savoring victory last night, he had a gentle morning for those closest to him. >> people like you, bob. don't get too popular, bobby. you have reached about the level. sarah: matt gaetz is the most controversial nominee. donald trump wants to make him attorney general because he would agree to use the justice system to persecute trump's opponents. but lawmakers are demanding to see the results of a congressional investigation into allegations of sex trafficking before they agree. he is not popular even with fellow republicans. >> mr. gaetz breaks things to

break things and then when he breaks it he breaks it even re. that is not somebody who should be the attorney general of the united states. sar>> he tried to imprison trum. he is not breakable. he could not destroy him. and now he has turned on you and he has put a firebrand in charge of the department of justice. sarah: republicans will control both houses of congress but that does not guarantee donald trump will get his way. the senate must approve his cabinet choices and some members have greater ris -- great reservations. trump is daring them to defy him, attempting to prove that he wields the power in washington. >> joining me now, we have former u.s. diplomat and president of the situation room brk bruin. first, mona, policy editor for the ball work.

good to have you with us. brett, we thought we would have to wait a minute to talk to you but i have both of you at the same time which is fantastic. let's talk about two of the most controversial nominations from donald trump, robert f. kennedy, jr. and also his pick for the attorney general, the top lawyer. do you think first of all that trump is not going to blink in terms of putting these people before the senate to be vetted and confirmed? or might he use these recess appointments to get them into position anyway, mona? >> well he is threatening to use the recess power. there is a little bit of grumbling on the part of some gop senators, notably la murkowski who is the senator from alaska, republican, who has noted that the senate does have

a constitutional role here of advise and consent. she is not willing to roll over. but let's understand what is happening here. trump is attempting to upend the entire system of checks and balances. he has no concern for constitutional traditions or niceties, and that is why he is expecting obedience from the gop senators and is threatening that he wl demand that they recess and that he make recess appointments if they insist on their constitutional role. >> brett, your thoughts on that, how important dyou think it is, does it matter to the president-elect whether the senate confirms his picks or whether ese recess appointments are used? brett: here is trump's problem. he doesn't have to go for reelection in less than two years time which many of these

senators and all the members of the house of representatives will have to. so they will have to justify these votes back home and trump has just made it exceptionally difficult for them. they were hoping they could ride this mandate that he just won and instead he has put out quite frankly a bit of the circus, the cloud show. they will have to justify those votes. i don't think even if trump tries to ram it through in a recess appointment, that makes it any less difficult because ultimately this is the party of rfk junior, of other characters thatrump is putting forward like matt gaetz for attorney general. >> but the republicans he relatively slim majorities in both houses. obviously talking about the senate in terms of the

confirmations process. do you have a sense that some of them will want to flex their independence? mona: well, in the era of trump, we have seen less and less evidence of spines among republicans. time after time they have demonstrated they are willing to bend the knee to trump. those who haven't have paid a price. but as i say, there are -- look, these nominations are not just controversial or somewhat different. these are a joke. these nominations are making a mockery of the entire government. the idea of putting somebody like robert f. kennedy, jr. in charge of america's bureaucracy, health and human services, this is not just somebody, as the

press calls him, a vaccine skeptic. no. this is someone who is a full on conspiracy-believing, lying scoundrel who is responsible for deaths around the world from vaccine denialism, who believes wi-fi causes brain damage, who doesn't think the aids virus -- that hiv causes aids, who has said things like the covid disease was manufactured to spare jews and asians. he is a nutcase. the idea of putting someone like that in this kind of a position really does begin to stress our government to the point, to the breaking poi really. annita: matt gaetz, brett, do you think that one way or another this has ethics -- house ethics report will make its way into the public domain?

we know that mike johnson, the speaker of the house, doesn't think it should be released. brett: there is no question it is coming out. ultimately that report is either going to come out through official channels or it will come out through unofficial channels. either way, the substance of it will be known. as you mentioned, it has already put speaker mike johnson in a really difficult spot because he looks like he is covering up for misdeeds by matt gaetz who would become the number one law enforcement official in the united states. annita: we should say that matt gaetz has not been charged with anything. brett: that is a fair point. nonetheless, based on reporting by the washington post and other major outlets, the contents of this investigation by the house ethics committee is quite

scandalous, quite concerning. again, matt gaetz will be going to hearings. he will be asked by republicans and democrats as well. this obviously just puts everyone in a very awkward position. this is on top of what is already some very questionable actions, statements that gaetz has made over his political career. so trump is already off to a very rocky start and it is hard to see how this gets better in the coming months. annita: mona, what do you think it means if all of these pix get through the nomination, confirmation process, if they all get through for arguments sake, what do you think that means probably for america? annita: well, forne thing, it re-cards internationally. it is impossible to imagin the united states will remain a trusted ally of europeans and

our asian partners when, at the top of our intelligence agencies, is a person like tulsi gabbard, who has been an apologist for assad in syria, circulated russian propaganda about ukraine, very sympathetic to putin. no one is going to feel comfortable sharing secrets with us if this kind of a person is at the top of our intelligence pyramid. it is going to signal a withdrawal of the united states from world leadership, with consequences that cannot be good for freedom-loving people around the world, and freedom-loving people here. second, i would say regarding all of these nominations, people who thought when they voted for trump, that they were going to get the guy that they remember

somewhat causally from 2017 to 2019, not too many terrible things happen when he was president from their point of view, and they give him a pass on covid, but the fact was he was restrained in the first term by the people around him who tended to be responsible, traditional republicans. this time around, he warned us, and we were on notice, it was going to, be retribution that it was going to be payback. people that voted for him ignoring that warning are now going to see the full force, that he meant it, and the trump they are getting is the 2020 trump, or the 2021 trump who orchestrated the attack on our own government, on our own capitol, violent attack, that should've been the most infamous act any president has ever mmitted. it was that.

it should have been perceived by such as the american people. i'm afraid now there will be a very hard lesson and what happens when you elect a pathological narcissist. annita: brett, do you subscribe to that picture painted by mona? there was one poll conducted during the campaign, ap vo tecast, and over a third of people in that poll were saying they were actively voting for somebody to come along and really shake up the way america does things. he won the electoral college, popular vote, so do you subscribe to that view? brett: i do think that americans are looking for radical change. that is what trump very clearly offered. now, whether or not they have calculated some of the collateral consequences of that

radical change is still an open question. but trump certainly feels, and many republicans feel, that they have a mandate to make those kinds of changes, which is why we are getting some of these nominees like tulsi gabbard, matt gaetz, robert f. kennedy, jr. is it as bleak as mona paints? i certainly hope not. i guess i am still holding out hope that we will see some of the restraint, some of the efforts by republican leaders in the house as well as in the senate, to exercise some oversight. ultimately, trump knows there is one important factor here. if the economy starts to tick downward, that is bad news for republicans in the reelection in 2026. it is bad news for trump who ultimately wants this to become a movement that jd vance, now the vice president elect will

inherit, and if the economy tanks, he will not get the movement, the legacy that he so badly desires. annita: really good to talk with you. thanks for your thoughts this evening on "the context." around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. ♪

annita: let's return to those nominations for key positions in his cabit by donald trump that are causing a lot of controversy including the health secretary, robert f. kennedy, jr. a vaccine skeptic, who has been nominated by the president elect a pediatrician told the bbc earlier that kennedy's promise to tackle the industrial food complex would be no bad thing. still, he and other scientists object to a number of other food policy plans, such as his

threats to fire nutritionists at the food and dru administration. we look now at the controversial claims he has made in the past. >> as donald trump appears to enter the white house, those who chooses to bring with him will have an impact on millions of americans. robert f. kennedy, jr. has been nominated as donald trump's health secretary in his second term. this is what trump said about rfk junior in his victory speech. pres.-elect trump: robert f. kennedy, jr.. he is going to help make america healthy again. >> rfk junior is an environmental lawyer and part of the kennedy dynasty. he has been a vaccine skeptic for nearly two decades and has shared misinformation on a range of public health issues. one of his main false claims, repeated in a 2023 interview with fox news, was that autism comes from vaccis. multiple studies across many countries have concluded there is no link between vaccines and

autism. rfk junior had denied on various occasions that he is anti-vaccination and says he has had his children vaccinated. >> i have never been and time, never told the public to avoid vaccination. >> in an interview after this election, he said he didn't want to take vaccines away but that people should have the best information so they can make informed choices. during the pandemic, rfk junior was also a critic of restriction to limit the spread of covid-19. he also spread misinformation by telling media that covid-19 is targeted to attack caucasians and black people. these claims are false. health specialist have said the virus didn't target any specific ethnic group and the number of covid cases have more to do with larger or intergenerational households. rfk junior has also long campaign against fluoride in water. fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral, added to water supplies in many countries and long been recognized to help teeth against decay.

on his post, rfk junior said fluoride is associated with several issues including arthritis, bone cancer, and neurodevelopmental disorders. but experts we spoke to says that the research he cites doesn't relate to the low levels of fluoride in drinking water. now the big question is whether his appointment will be approved by the senate, and if so, how will rfk junior govern? annita: still with us our forr diplomat and president of the global situation room, brett and mona. thank you both for still being with us here on "the context." britt, we talked a little bit about rfk junior earlier this hour. but do you think he is -- obviously he had presidential ambitions himself -- but now that he is principally being rewarded for that very public shift, expression of loyalty and support for donald trump? brett: there is no doubt trump

is trying to shore up the support that he got from rfk junior's if you will, rather extreme segment of the voting population. what he is doing is trying to broaden his coalition, putting rfk junior in his cabinet and bringing along with him some of those libertarians, some of those extreme voters. he is doing the same thing with tulsi gabbard. ultimately, this is going to be some sort of coalition government. quite frankly, the views that both of them represent are not the traditional views of republicans. it is going to be interesting to see, for instance, how so many of those conservative republican senators can reconcile their views with rfk junior's reproductive rights stance. i think we will see some

interesting political gymnastics take place during the confirmation hearings. annita: mona, during donald trump's first presidency, that whole period afterward when joe biden was elected as his successor, we saw a lot of controversy around donald trump and what he thought about anthony fauci, his views on vaccinations and how to handle the covid pandemic. do you think now that we are very much in an era where we are seeing people appointed for their loyalty rather than expertise and experience? mona: 100%. the entire qualification to serve in dog trump's cabinet is that you be a faithful loyal to trump and willing to do his bidding no matter what, even if it is unethical or immoral or unconstitutional.

but i will say that trump has always had an attraction for nutty ideas himself. let's not forget in 2016, after trump was elected the first time, he interviewed rfk junior at his trump tower, they had a chat about vaccines, the belief that they cause autism. trump said that he felt the same. he had been on record, voicing that view, which as your package noted has been thoroughly, thoroughly debunked. but he toyed with rfk junior even then. so he has an attraction to ideas that are on the kooky fringe, that violate science and good judgment. annita: i am just going to

interrupt you because we are almost out of time and i want to get one more question to britt. one hallmark of the first trump presidency was a lot of falling out with various appointees and people who were once close to him. do you think any of these alliances may go the same way? brett: i have no doubt. we can put an egg timer to it. as was noted by mona, you'll have a lot of ideological differences. quite frankly, you'll have a lot of flak. trump does not realize how politically risky some of these appointments are. every time they say something, do something that antagonizes, including key republican groups he needs, he is going to have his twitter, truth social lit up with criticism. you are already starting to see it from the likes of the new york post, which endorsed him r president, saying why are you putting someone forward

someone who is so medically irresponsible as rfk junior? annita: brett and mona, thank you for your thoughts on the program. yes, that article saying that some of these controversial pix are going to be a distraction from trying to make progress on the promises donald trump made on the campaign trail like on the economy. really good to have you with us on "the context's today. thank you very much. much more to come on "the context." announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs.

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