Politics and views in the United States.

Matt Gaetz's nomination raises ethics concerns, Trump's health pick fuels vaccine disinformation worries, a minimum wage boost gains support, California nonprofits mobilize, and an election betting CEO gets raided by FBI.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Trump was not shy about what he wanted to do, and Matt Gaetz knows exactly what to do with the Attorney General's office.

He will turn that into being the most powerful attorney general in American history.

Florida Democratic Rep.

Jared Moskowitz worked with controversial Attorney General pick Matt Gaetz, who he describes as both fiercely loyal to President-elect Donald Trump and fiercely competent.

The House Ethics Committee was preparing to release a report on sexual misconduct, misuse of campaign funds, and illegal gift allegations against Gaetz.

He resigned from Congress Wednesday, ending that investigation and a similar criminal probe closed without charges.

But his nomination to be the nation's top legal official is likely to face sharp opposition in a closely divided Senate.

Trump has nominated anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

That's drawing intense criticism from senior medical officials.

CDC Director Mandy Cohen warns against disinformation about vaccines and eroding public trust.

We have a very short memory of what it is like to hold a child who has been paralyzed with polio or to comfort a mom who's lost her kid from measles.

I don't want to have to see us go backwards in order to remind ourselves that vaccines work.

Voters in five states approve minimum wage hikes.

That includes Missouri, where it'll go up to $15 per hour and then rise with inflation.

Richard Von Glaun of Missourians for Healthy Families says minimum wage increases have been proven to help businesses by reducing turnover.

Having guardrails around the economy makes sense for everybody.

It's what allows our community's values to be expressed.

Policies like this actually can save them money because it reduces turnover.

The FBI has seized electronic devices from ahead of an election betting website, which faces scrutiny over anonymous cryptocurrency wagers.

PolyMarket CEO Shane Coplin has not been charged with a crime.

He says the raid of his New York apartment was politically motivated after the site predicted Trump's win.

We feel litigation with PolyMarket being right and now in hindsight being actually the most accurate way to follow the election.

It's a novel concept and people were skeptical when it came around, but hopefully now people will be a lot more embracing of market-based information.

With the Republican Party now controlling the presidency and Congress, the trifecta gives Trump significant authority to pursue his agenda on the economy, immigration and other key issues.

A state alliance of nonprofits called We Are California says they are mobilizing against possible Trump policies that impact immigrants, LGBTQ+ communities and civil rights.

Angelica Salas is with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

Mass deportations, family separation, worksite raids, these are all things that he has done in the past.

But what we're expecting is a scale of attack on our community that is unprecedented.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.