Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 017-094
Date: Saturday, December 25, 1971 at 11:51 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-094

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Mr. Ehrlichman on the line?
[0:03] Yes sir.
[0:03] It occurred to me that that Texas case maybe could be the thing that would accelerate our
[0:14] You noticed the paper this morning.
[0:17] Didn't you think that was very significant?
[0:19] Yes, and it's very logical for Connolly to be speaking out now.
[0:22] Yeah, I think in the light of that, you could talk to him.
[0:26] But I think he is the one.
[0:27] If he'll take the first bite, then we can get it moving.
[0:32] Because with that case and the California case, it's just inevitable now that we have a hell of a crisis.
[0:38] Somebody else is going to bite it if we don't.
[0:40] You see, the court gave him two years.
[0:42] yeah to try and solve it well they'll crash around in the legislature for a whole year right right john fine okay all right merry christmas julie's show last night was just special you liked it good i didn't see it but i is but uh well it was the i think the best piece of family television that has ever been done really yeah you're a pretty good critic well you came across beautifully well i i think uh
[1:11] pat was saying afterwards that she wished there'd been sort of less of me and the others you know they always see me and more of julie and i i'm fine think she's right but of course we can't control those no and it was a good balance i thought everybody got a little bit in david was awfully good yeah he's got uh all of all in all we we came away just feeling that it was the best thing we'd ever seen any of you do well that's nice this is first rate well
[1:36] fine.
[1:36] I hope it gets people in the Christmas spirit.
[1:38] Oh, I think it will.
[1:40] I've been making, I've made a lot of Christmas, I've been making, I've made about, I've been up since about 8 o'clock and I've made 40 calls already.
[1:48] I've covered all the cabinet.
[1:50] I've covered all, well, one call was Wisconsin.
[1:55] An 18-year-old had written me a very moving letter.
[2:03] So I called him and he put his
[2:04] mother, two sisters out in Molloy.
[2:08] That was worthwhile.
[2:10] And then, of course, you find out things, too.
[2:12] I called Albert and found that George Andrews of Alabama died this morning.
[2:16] I'm calling his wife now.
[2:18] But otherwise, it's going fine.
[2:20] Well, Merry Christmas to you.
[2:21] Incidentally, on the calls, actually, I got my usual request for appointments.
[2:27] One, Romney.
[2:29] And I said, well, just as soon as
[2:30] I'm traveling back and forth.
[2:32] You get a hold of John.
[2:33] John, come in.
[2:33] Well, I've been holding him off because he's got three very half-baked ideas.
[2:37] But if you'll bake him a little bit, you can point out that we have to get through Sato before I can do it, though.
[2:44] Well, I've told him that.
[2:46] But I set it up for him.
[2:48] I said, you know, George, I'm on these trips, and you grab him.
[2:51] So I'm going to get through Sato around the 10th of the month is the time.
[2:55] But he should get in front.
[2:56] He didn't press it.
[2:57] He was very nice about it.
[2:59] He said he'd like to see me sometime.
[3:01] Yeah, I know.
[3:01] We've had two letters from him, and I've been meeting with him.
[3:04] But I hope he didn't ask for anything, so that was good.
[3:06] It was a good day.
[3:08] Yeah, I got off fast.
[3:09] Okay.
[3:10] Bye.
[3:10] Merry Christmas.