Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 017-032
Date: Friday, December 24, 1971 at 5:20 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-032

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello?
[0:05] Secretary Rogers, returning your call.
[0:08] Hello, Mr. President.
[0:09] Hello, Mr. President.
[0:12] You got a shower, huh?
[0:14] Well, I just called to wish you a Merry Christmas and to tell you that I was delighted that you were going down the plane with us Sunday night, huh?
[0:21] Yeah, Sunday night.
[0:21] Yeah, Sunday night.
[0:22] That's what I meant.
[0:24] I'm going to wait.
[0:24] I'm going at 8 o'clock.
[0:25] I wanted to wait and see the football game.
[0:27] I'm glad.
[0:27] And, of course, Patterson's going, but...
[0:29] you bring a towel with you.
[0:34] There'll be plenty of room.
[0:35] Yeah, well, that's fine.
[0:36] I thought at the end, because we're going to be there.
[0:40] Well, you might have thought that an extra day in that way.
[0:42] Sure, that's fine.
[0:42] Good, and I thought you were excellent in your press conference.
[0:44] I didn't see it, but Colson gave me a report.
[0:45] He talked to me extremely well.
[0:46] Got a good play on it.
[0:46] Excellent play.
[0:47] Yeah, you know, when you think about it, we got quite a record.
[0:52] I summarized the record, and it's a firm record when you think about it.
[0:59] God darn right.
[1:05] And I tell you, everybody in the place was friendly.
[1:07] I didn't have a hostile person.
[1:08] I mean, you had a big group.
[1:08] Yeah.
[1:08] It was the right time to have it, too.
[1:10] It was only a coincidence.
[1:11] We hadn't thought of it, you know.
[1:12] The hopper release occurred the same day, or it would have been the lead, but that's all right.
[1:14] It was good that we had another story with Hoffa.
[1:26] Yeah, I think that too.
[1:26] No, I think it worked out fine.
[1:27] Incidentally, the Hoffa thing, we had to do with a reason that I wanted to get it over with.
[1:29] Now, the patrol bar was bound to let him out in June, and I didn't want him to come back soon.
[1:31] So, yeah.
[1:32] Well, I think it was a good thing.
[1:32] And the poor guy, he looked like hell, they told me.
[1:33] And the wife is, you know...
[1:34] it desperately.
[1:40] Well, after a man that served almost five years, the rest of it is just cool and inhuman punishment.
[1:49] It really is.
[1:49] You've got degradation.
[1:50] And also, another thing we did, we put a condition on it that he could not participate in any labor activities until 1983.
[1:56] Well, now, what the heck?
[1:57] I don't think anybody wants more except the New York Times.
[1:59] Well, I hope you have a great Christmas.
[2:00] I'm going to watch football.
[2:01] Okay, Mr. President.
[2:04] Thank you.