Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 006-095
Date: Friday, July 2, 1971 at 4:23 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/006-095
National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/417189081 (NAID 417189081)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:02] Yes, sir.
[0:02] Would you tell, I forgot to mention, John Scali that I saw Rogers at lunch and he spoke very highly of Scali's working on that statement with him.
[0:12] And I told Rogers that whenever we took a trip in the future, and naturally we have none planned at the moment, but you never know, I said that it was my plan to have Scali go as the top pilot.
[0:23] advisor in his field because he worked so well with Ziegler and with McCloskey.
[0:29] And Bill said, that's just great.
[0:30] He's all for it.
[0:31] This will build Scali up a little bit.
[0:33] That's good for his morale.
[0:35] And just telling him that we don't want, that there's nothing planned at the moment, but that
[0:39] that I'm pleased that it's working out this way, because whenever trips are taken, Rogers, of course, will go, and Rick Scali's just the man to go along.
[0:46] Perfect enemy here.
[0:47] The other thing to say to him is this, that see if what he can do to see that that statistical fluke thing doesn't become the story tonight on NBC.
[0:56] I don't know if you can, but...
[0:58] Yes, he's talking to Chancellor, and also to Rather.
[1:03] Well, they've got to say that some say it's statistical, but let's get our side across, too.
[1:08] I'm sure they will.
[1:10] Explaining it to Howard Smith, he understood it perfectly.
[1:13] What really happened is, it seems to me, is that their earlier figures, when they went up, were...
[1:20] where they went up, frankly, unemployment never went to 6.2.
[1:24] That's right, exactly.
[1:26] And it probably is about 5.8, and now it's really 5.6, but it did go down.
[1:31] That's right, and that's the important thing.
[1:33] But the point is that the bad news we took was also a statistical fluke, and now we're simply correcting it.
[1:39] I went through this yesterday with Schultz at length, and that, I think, is a fact.
[1:43] I don't think it ever went as high as they said it did.
[1:44] That's right.
[1:45] All right, go.
[1:46] I'll take care of it, sir.
[1:47] Thank you.