Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 017-158
Date: Sunday, January 2, 1972 at 11:23 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose Mary
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-158

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Yeah.
[0:06] What's going on?
[0:06] Hello, Rose?
[0:11] Yes, sir.
[0:12] Hey, I talked with Bill Rogers, and I talked with Don Rumsfeld.
[0:20] What'd they both say?
[0:21] Well, they both thought it was good to come over to Maryland.
[0:23] I know it's good, right?
[0:23] Exactly what you said.
[0:24] You said?
[0:24] Oh, no.
[0:24] Where are you?
[0:24] I'm home, and I've got to do some washing, some laundry, and some all sorts of things before I get ready to go tomorrow.
[0:27] Well, you don't have to go to the fire service anymore.
[0:44] I know, but I have to keep working.
[0:45] No, no, no, no, no, no.
[0:45] I wish I was doing what I do, but there's just too much to do.
[0:48] But Bill Rogers said, I thought it was absolutely great.
[0:50] He thought that some of the questions were perfectly silly.
[0:51] That the questions were rather asked about the pledges and the campaigns.
[0:53] One of the parodies said to him, you know, made him look like a stupid little guy.
[1:11] He thought that you came over great.
[1:16] And that, that the whole thing, he just thought you handled it so beautifully and never lost a fool.
[1:18] And he said, you know, the hair pull bit, oh, it was getting tough.
[1:20] It was stupid, but it was tough to handle this fool.
[1:21] To handle these things too.
[1:22] And he just thought you did it beautifully and never lost a fool.
[1:23] Don Rumsfeld said, I thought he did a hell of a good job.
[1:38] His responses to basically traffic were great.
[1:43] He thought that it was, he thought that having Dan Rather there, that it was almost like, say, presidents were being,
[1:51] put on the Teddy Kennedy-esque question about how bad he felt about the president.
[2:05] Or that it was like a JFK letting Bill Buckley ask him the question.
[2:08] And he thought, and he incidentally said, they watched it with neighbors who are friends of the Rathers and are Democrats.
[2:15] And they felt that the president came off very well and rather looked like college editors.
[2:21] And, boy, you can't.
[2:27] Here's a guy who thinks he's a big shot.
[2:28] But even his own neighbors thought that he looked like, you know, the editor of a college newspaper.
[2:46] I wish he could ask better questions.
[2:47] Oh, well, no.
[2:47] He couldn't ask better questions because he's so damn dumb.
[2:48] Well, he'd be smart.
[2:49] Well, he's not smart.
[2:52] Well, he was trying to...
[3:01] If he'd been smart, he could have asked... Well, he asked what he thought were embarrassing questions.
[3:12] That's what he asked.
[3:12] But you were so much brighter than he and so much cooler than him.
[3:14] And I think that one of the things that was evident is that anyone, almost everyone, would have wanted to get up and hit him.
[3:17] And you didn't let on.
[3:17] He'd ask anything that wasn't perfectly involved.
[3:19] And this buzzed you.
[3:28] And people loved it.
[3:30] I think that's basically where it was.
[3:33] And you did a good job.
[3:34] And I personally thought that, like I said before, that answer on the M was too big.
[3:39] But C-O-W, Carmen, over there, I am sure that in the long run,
[3:44] Now that the TV stations are paying for stuff, the vice-church of Agnes, they have currently...
[4:07] But I think... Well, I know that.
[4:09] But you also said at this time...
[4:09] But I don't know what that's all going to be, and I don't see it in my business.
[4:12] But it was, I think...
[4:13] I really think that answer on those guys who are on hand with you now and on the back end, I think that was great.
[4:30] And I think that in the next two weeks, that's the thing that will get the answers, not the thing they pick up.
[4:35] But the point is, they didn't think Americans chose to serve them.
[4:36] That's right.
[4:37] They didn't think Americans loved their country.
[4:38] They didn't.
[4:39] I wouldn't leave them out of the country.
[4:43] I wouldn't let them back in ever, but then I'm nasty.
[4:53] That's right.
[4:53] After they're all back home, then you can look and see whether... As a matter of fact, it wouldn't be bad to let the POWs die whether those slackers get back in the country.
[5:05] Or let them have a voice in the air.
[5:09] But I think you can go to bed happy that you did a great job.
[5:19] Yeah, that's what I just put.
[5:24] Okay, sleep tight.
[5:26] Good night.