Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 005-135
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1971 at 9:31 AM
Participants: Ehrlichman, John D.; White House operator; Nixon, Richard M. (President); MacGregor, Clark
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/005-135

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] That was John Ehrlichman.
[0:06] Would you give me Clark McGregor, please?
[0:07] Yes, sir.
[0:16] Clark McGregor, is that you?
[0:19] That's John Ehrlichman.
[0:19] Is he there?
[0:20] Yes, just a moment, sir.
[0:29] Hello, I just talked with the speaker.
[0:37] He's a little confused by some telephone message from your office.
[0:42] about parliamentarians and storage of documents and so forth.
[0:46] It isn't clear to me, John, whether we're transmitting two sets of documents or one set.
[0:49] No, one.
[0:50] And how is it to be handled?
[0:51] Well, I'll... Don't worry about it.
[0:54] Don't worry about it.
[0:55] I'll fill you in when I get through here.
[0:57] But the point is that he had some message from your office that had him badly hung up, and I told him just to disregard it.
[1:03] I don't know...
[1:04] how any message from this office could have held him, had him badly hung up.
[1:07] I haven't talked to him at all.
[1:09] Well, no, you talked to, somebody talked to a secretary in his office about documents being transmitted to a parliamentarian.
[1:15] I didn't talk to him.
[1:17] I talked to the vice president this morning.
[1:19] He's the presiding officer of the United States Senate.
[1:22] What did you tell him?
[1:25] I told him that the president was considering.
[1:27] I was having breakfast with Mike Mansfield this morning and was considering an action with respect to the documents involving the Congress.
[1:33] And it might well involve the presiding officers of the House and the Senate.
[1:38] And as the presiding officer of the Senate, I wanted to make sure that he was not embarrassed by being out of town.
[1:43] He said, oh, I'll be here, Clark.
[1:45] And he said, but if you've got any questions about the handling of documents, we've got a regular procedure for that, and I'll have Walter Mote call you.
[1:51] And Walter, he called, Vice President then called Walter Mote, who called me.
[1:54] Now, Mote may have well also called somebody in the Speaker's office.
[1:58] Did not come from our office.
[1:59] I have not talked to the Speaker or anybody in the Speaker's office about the President's announcement.
[2:03] Oh, he used your name.
[2:05] In any event, Jerry Ford's not available, and so I've got to call in for him, and I'll talk with him just as soon as he's available.
[2:13] But Mansfield is going to contact these people and have a meeting.
[2:15] He's not going to contact the Vice President.
[2:20] He's just not on the list.
[2:21] The Vice President, of course, is the presiding officer of the United States Senate.
[2:25] Well, that's what the Constitution says.
[2:27] And the transmittal of documents does go to the Vice President's office.
[2:31] Well, except in this case, the President told Mansfield that the transmission would go to Mansfield and the joint leadership of the two houses.
[2:41] Um...
[2:42] Because it is not like a congressional message.
[2:44] I appreciate it.
[2:46] It's an extraordinary procedure.
[2:48] It is an extraordinary situation.
[2:52] So you better untrack the vice president.
[2:55] I'll call him right away.
[2:58] But they asked me questions about whether there's one set of documents, two set of documents, and so forth.
[3:05] And I said, I don't know about that.
[3:06] Well, I haven't any information about that.
[3:08] I think you better get unplugged from him because he's not in the chain here.
[3:14] Well, I just... All right, I know of no procedure for the president to transmit documents to the United States Senate and bypass the presiding officer.
[3:21] We're about to make one.
[3:22] Okay.
[3:23] All right.