Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 12 › Conversation 012-078

Nixon phone call with Colson on Supreme Court appointments

Thursday, October 21, 1971 · 9:50 PM–10:04 PM ET · White House Telephone · 14 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation012-078 on Tape 12 (tape position 02:46:33–03:01:22)StartThursday, October 21, 1971 at 9:50 PMEndThursday, October 21, 1971 at 10:04 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 012-078 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss strategies for securing the confirmation of Supreme Court nominees William H. Rehnquist and Lewis F. Powell, Jr. following the President's recent announcement. They weigh the political challenges posed by opposition from groups like the American Bar Association and individual Democrats, specifically Edward M. Kennedy. Nixon emphasizes the nominees' superior academic and professional credentials as a defense against criticism and stresses the importance of maintaining momentum for their confirmation.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 8 minutes of this recording (about 55% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Yep.
Yep.
Hello, everybody's kind of shook him up.
Only people unhappy, people with a woman.
Blame it on the bar.
If we could have found one, I think it would have been good, but I think the overriding consideration of the question is they have two people who are so respective to the question that they just can't lay a glove on it.
I think you should just take a position from one side to the other side and talk to that one person so you can ask them, you know, do you feel the same way?
Oh sure.
Oh boy, he'll be tougher than anybody else in that place.
Well, there are already 47 meters in the way, so I don't know if you can see them, but he's getting pretty high back speed.
No question, we're staying on track, and that would be just in position.
I think he's so cold, of course, that we have to watch out for the quarter-tees.
They're just trying to get in there very tight, you know.
I think they're heavy.
You get a bunch of guys that have virtually unanimous and positive reactions.
I'm trying to do enough to call some guys, liberals and conservatives.
It's hard to knock guys that are first in the class.
Well, especially if you, that's right, especially if you're a legend, everybody is.
It's just a magnificent place because they were all led into this line of doing X's.
Try.
Try.
They'll try to knock Rehnquist because, well, they don't know him and this and that, but for Christ's sake, it's not going to knock a guy first in his class's tent, which is, of course, a better law school than most of them attended.
Second, uh, the liar's liar.
That's exactly it.
You can hear his qualifications as if he was lying.
Oh, Christ.
You can hear his qualifications as if he was lying.
Oh, Christ.
Yeah.
Good.
Good.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Those are hard lines, thank God.
That's why I picked them.
Right.
I know he would.
That's why we sucked him out for that reason.
It was just magnificent.
I'd rather take him on a trip about two weeks.
I think the latest one was Friday.
He was right about two weeks ago.
I don't know what you're going to ask me, of course, but I'm not going to tell you how to get him back.
I'd like to see if you are going to ask me if you're going to get him back.
Right.
They would just go, it was just magnificent to know.
You hear about me these days.
Yeah, I talked to me in the phone briefly.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He said he was going to go back and check their records tomorrow for issuing his own statement.
He may come out against them because of some damn little silly big one.
He may have said it on labor.
But he's wrong if he doesn't.
Yeah.
He could see that it was a very, very brilliant play, really.
You got the lower order.
Right.
And I defended the guard, praised the goddamn guard.
We don't want to have something that's too irritating.
Right.
Yeah.
Q is the best qualifier we could find.
Also, you can't knock that first-team's class at Stanford in.
Walk right through Robert Jackson.
That's big stuff for these guys.
They're snobs.
You will turn up if you want, as strong as you can.
Of course.
25 degrees.
And as I said, you know, the Supreme Court is the fastest track, and you've got to have people that are, you know, on that court that are just as fast as the people in the previous world, and that was a good thing.
Well, I thought the presentation was good.
I don't think, I don't believe you can do that.
I think you can do it.
That's true.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it.
Oh boy.
Sure, they did it, they did it.
Well, we're giving him something to pick him up.
Kennedy's going to have a problem.
He's already dead.
He's going to come out.
He'll come out again.
You know, a little time, finally.
So he'll pick up the fact that...
I guess the power came out of the spot that you came from, so it's not a big time issue.
But you should have.
Sure.
Well, I think you'll look at it further.
It looked like the first thing that came out of the ship.
And the reason Chuck did was, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know,
Right.
Well, we'll see.
Okay.

NARA Description

On October 21, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 9:50 pm to 10:04 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 012-078 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 012-078

Date: October 21, 1971
Time: 9:50 pm- 10:04 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

     The President's speech, October 21, 1971
          -Supreme Court appointments
               -Women

******************************************************************************

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 12/15/2017.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[012-078-w001]
[Duration: 7s]

     The President’s speech, October 21, 1971
          -Supreme Court appointments
               -Thelma C. (Ryan) (“Pat”) Nixon’s response

******************************************************************************

            -The President's Supreme Court appointees
                 -American Bar Association [ABA]
                       -Previous ABA rejection of candidates
                 -William H. Rehnquist
                       -Stanford law school
                       -Capitol Hill sentiment
            -Democrats
                 -Edward M. Kennedy
                 -George Meany
                       -Possible support
                 -Mildred L. Lillie
            -The President’s Supreme Court appointees
                 -Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
                 -Rehnquist
                       -Stanford
                       -Robert H. Jackson
                       -Possible tenure on the Supreme Court
                 -ABA
                 -Powell

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

                 -Rehnquist
                 -Edward M. Kennedy
                      -Powell
                            -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Also recorded on October 22, 1971

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  • 012-072 9:44 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:44 pm.
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  • 012-074 9:45 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:45 pm.
  • 012-075 9:45 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:45 pm and 9:47 pm.
  • 012-076 9:45 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:45 pm and 9:47 pm.
  • 012-077 9:47 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 9:47 pm to 9:50 pm.

All 50 conversations from October 22, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 012-078, October 22, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/012-078 (accessed October 12, 2026).