On June 30, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Leonard Garment talked on the telephone from 2:32 pm to 2:36 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 006-051 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
I thought you'd be interested by a little call.
I called Rangel today right after making that announcement.
You know, you remember the Black Caucus meeting?
Yes.
And I said, I called him and, boy, he's quite overwhelmed.
He said, of course, he said that was, well, that was wonderful.
And he said he was so pleased.
And I said, well, he said, you
I just want you to know, we didn't agree with everything, but I want you to know that I was very impressed with what you said and that we listened and that we were trying already, but we tried harder as a result of your being there and we've got it done.
That's terrific.
Then he went on to say a very interesting thing.
He said, you know, he said, I just wish my grandfather could have lived to see.
His grandson getting a call from the President of the United States, he wouldn't have believed it.
And I said, well, I said, Congressman, my grandfather wouldn't have believed it if he'd seen me making the call.
He kind of laughed.
Then he went on to say, too, that they said, I hope Buck Krogan, your other people, because he's been talking, I guess Krogan talked to him.
You know, just keep talking.
As you know, we're not Democrats or Republicans when it comes to some of these things.
We just want to.
But I thought you might.
I don't know Rangel, of course.
Rangel, you remember him at the meeting.
He's very bright.
He's one of the ablest of the group.
He's an awfully good-looking guy.
I remember he was very handsome and very intelligent.
And, of course, naturally, if I'd been born in Harlem, I'd be a Democrat.
But anyway, I thought when we can do something for them, let them know and never get mad when they're against us.
Yeah, of course, they've taken a bit of a...
bruising from the democratic leadership who wouldn't meet with them and he said that he was going to report to the caucus and i said that's fine i just want them to know that on we didn't agree with everything but we did on some and when we did we we followed up well i think i think so i thought that's terrific so they used to i was incidentally very impressed with uh hootney young's successor now he's naturally a new boy in town he'll be aggressive and he will knock his future but
He's a very intelligent man.
Oh, he's going to be a very good fellow for us to work with.
Let me tell you this about Vernon.
You know, an interesting thing, I don't know whether you noted it, but did you notice if you just sat there and marked his color away how much he looked like my younger brother, Eddie?
That's interesting.
I really hadn't thought of that.
I mean, there's very fine features and delicacy.
And it's sort of his eyes, you know, the way he kind of, his smile, I was just really impressed.
Well, that's interesting.
Sort of the same attitude, you know, sort of that.
Really very.
And he dug out that picture.
He's a very, very, very sharp guy.
But we've worked with him in the past.
Have you?
Including Harry Dent.
On the Negro College Fund.
No, no, this was on voting rights.
And he and Harry did some business together.
Right.
And he's very practical.
And I think he knows what we want to do here.
The thing that he has to, as I told him, in order to keep his constituency, he's got to complain about some things.
But on the other hand, just give us our due where we're right.
I think the pieces are starting to come together.
The Wall Street Journal, I think, may do a major piece on all of the civil rights programs and how this really works.
It is beginning to take shape very quietly and very effectively.
Well, you might think this little wrangle story is not a bad one to sort of feed in.
Not blatantly, but it's rather nice.
No, that would be a nice one to place around.
Okay.
Bye.
Thank you.