Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 12 › Conversation 012-025

Nixon phone call with Mitchell on Supreme Court appointments

Wednesday, October 20, 1971 · 6:17 PM–6:21 PM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Mitchell, John N.Conversation012-025 on Tape 12 (tape position 00:40:34–00:44:27)StartWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 6:17 PMEndWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 6:21 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 012-025 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417191563 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell discuss strategy for upcoming Supreme Court nominations, focusing on managing political fallout and public perception. They evaluate potential candidates like Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and address the ABA's negative reception toward Herschel Friday due to civil rights concerns. To ensure a controlled rollout, Nixon plans to utilize William Safire to draft his announcement remarks only hours before the official disclosure to prevent premature leaks.

Audio

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NARA Description

On October 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell talked on the telephone from 6:17 pm to 6:21 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 012-025 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 012-025

Date: October 20, 1971
Time: 6:17 pm- 6:21 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with John N. Mitchell.

[See Conversation No. 282-42]

     Supreme Court appointments
          -John A. Volpe
               -George A. Tesoro
                     -Age
                     -Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
          -Herschel H. Friday
               -Lawrence E. Walsh
               -Civil rights
                     -Powell
          -American Bar Association [ABA] Committee
               -Possible female appointees
                     -Walsh
                     -Mildred L. Lillie
                            -Vote
          -The President's announcement
               -William L. Safire
          -Howard H. Baker, Jr.

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Yeah.
The attorney general.
Yes, Mr. President.
Hi.
One thing that occurred to me is that you're going to have to fend off, of course, is our friend Volpe.
You know, we put off Toro on the ground that he was too old and so forth and so on, and now I suppose that John, isn't Toro, what is he, 60?
65, I guess 6 now.
66.
Yeah, must be.
That's two years older, but...
Had to get somebody less than 65, I guess we can say.
But anyway, I guess you can handle it.
I'll stay away.
I'll stay out of it.
Yes, he talks to me about it constantly.
And you tell him we're preparing people for it.
But as a matter of fact, I'm not sure Toro would slide through as well as Powell anyway, would he?
No, I don't believe he would.
He isn't that distinguished?
Is he or is he?
No, he'd probably get by all right, but he wouldn't.
Isn't it interesting?
Why do you think they pissed on Friday of all things?
Civil rights.
I'll be damned.
Really?
Yeah, that's what Ed Wallace told me.
Well, they'll do the same on Powell then, won't they?
They're not going to have, nobody's going to have a chance.
You mean I will have named him?
You will have named him, and it won't be this pressure, you know, from all over the country, from the laws of civil rights and all that.
I'll be goddamned.
Yeah, and Walsh admitted to me that that was it.
Mm-hmm.
Well, the woman thing, that's got to get out, you know, some way.
I mean, naturally, the boat will get out, won't it?
Everything else is leaked out of there.
Now, believe me, we're going to leak this out if they don't.
You can rest assured we'll get it out one way or the other.
And Walsh knows it's coming.
Yeah.
He's been well-programmed.
And the 11-to-1s.
And I think the 11-to-1 is brilliant because it's a jury that way, see?
It's a stack jury.
All men.
Huh?
Absolutely not one qualified.
She's the best qualified woman, but she's not qualified for the Supreme Court.
Jesus, that's great.
That's great.
We just have to program it.
Of course, we can't go too far until you get through tomorrow night, because otherwise the surprise of the operation will be destroyed.
That's right.
But we're working on the letters and so forth.
We'll have it pretty well set up.
Right.
Now, in preparing my remarks, I'm going to use, in the morning, I'm going to use Sapphire because he's the fastest rider and I'm, you know, on this sort of thing.
And so I'm going to have
And all that stuff gets over here.
He may ask a question or two whether I want you to know it'll be by my authority I'm fine My view is to just come on with the match going to be brief But I want to point out that I've searched the country for the two best qualified people and all that He is the biggest leaker in the place.
Can you turn him off?
Well, I'm not gonna tell him till the morning.
Oh, I think oh hell I've not got time tonight.
I say oh Christ.
Yeah, that's my point is a leaker Yeah, that's why that's why I mean in the morning.
I
Once we decide, then I'll start him writing and lock him up.
That's the way we did, that's what we did up at the phase two, phase one thing, you know, he did that too.
Great.
Oh, Christ, I know he leaks.
I would never, oh, he doesn't have the slightest idea that he's going to even be asked to do this job.
All right.
But he writes quickly, that's the main thing, gets it done.
Because this is going to have to be a fast job.
Very good, sir.
I hear Howard Baker has just landed at the airport and he's waiting to talk to me.
Waiting to talk to you?
Mm-hmm.
At the airport?
He just got into the airport.
He's on the phone.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, call me back.
Oh, well, I'll give you directly, sir.
All right.
All right.

Also recorded on October 20, 1971

  • 012-022 6:09 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:09 pm and 6:10 pm.
  • 012-023 6:10 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. talked on the telephone from 6:10 pm to 6:11 pm.
  • 282-038 6:10 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 6:10 pm.
  • 282-039 6:10 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:10 pm to 6:11 pm.
  • 012-024 6:11 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.
  • 282-040 6:11 PM · 59 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.
  • 282-041 6:11 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.
  • 282-042 6:11 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.

All 81 conversations from October 20, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 012-025, October 20, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417191563). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/012-025 (accessed November 12, 2026).