Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 020-029
Date: Wednesday, February 2, 1972 at 2:14 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Dent, Harry S.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/020-029

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Hello.
[0:02] Mr. Dent, sir.
[0:03] Hello, Harry.
[0:04] Yes, sir.
[0:05] How are the governor's temperatures after?
[0:07] Are they feeling pretty good?
[0:09] Yes, sir.
[0:09] I thought that was very well handled last night.
[0:12] Well, they didn't all get the talk, but I, of course, got a good chance to talk to both Peterson and Cahill and Mescalow.
[0:19] All of them are sitting at that table.
[0:21] Right, sir.
[0:22] And I think having the big boys talk that way, they all like to hear them, too.
[0:26] And they did well, didn't they?
[0:28] Rockefeller, Reagan.
[0:29] Sure.
[0:29] I, frankly, I don't know why Holton always has to bring up that thing about his kid, but otherwise, but I guess that's the thing.
[0:38] With him, yes, it is.
[0:40] Wasn't that Rockefeller surprising?
[0:42] Yes, sir.
[0:43] He was all out, wasn't he?
[0:45] Yes, sir.
[0:45] Well, they're all out, Mr. President.
[0:47] I've found this from all these meetings I've had with them.
[0:49] Well, you've been doing a fine job.
[0:50] Incidentally, I want to tell you, you did a very good job in...
[0:53] California Reagan was telling me it was a CRA or something.
[0:57] Yes.
[0:57] Thank you, sir.
[0:58] That was good.
[0:59] We're going to try to get Agnew to go out and do their meeting.
[1:01] That's good.
[1:02] You might, you might, I was sitting with Mitchell at the time, but you might call the vice president and tell him that you and I were chatting and that
[1:12] that i that he'll hear it from other sources but that you've been out and then he'd get a hell of a welcome and it and that he ought to do it all right you know right mr president these governors that briefing we had for him yesterday with early one and kissinger and shoots yeah were now that was good for them uh they really got the cold cock and they got a chance to ask questions and make input and suggestions about the vat and all this other stuff
[1:36] Sure.
[1:37] And so that was good.
[1:40] They didn't have that before I sent you that note, you see.
[1:42] They didn't have that opportunity to have that.
[1:44] Well, I knew they'd had that, and I knew that there wasn't anything I could add with those other fellows there.
[1:48] Right, sir.
[1:49] And also, I didn't want to get too darn partisan with Connolly there, you know.
[1:53] Right, sir.
[1:53] I didn't want him to be embarrassed.
[1:54] As it turned out, it was fine.
[1:56] Right, sir.
[2:34] So uh...
[2:35] That was, you really covered them.
[2:37] You hit them right between the eyes with what you had to say.
[2:40] That's good.
[2:40] So they should have left in very, very good time.
[2:42] Well, we started praying and ended playing.
[2:44] That's right, sir.
[2:45] Right.
[2:45] That was very good yesterday morning, too, your appearance for the prayer breakfast.
[2:50] Well, that's a good group, isn't it?
[2:51] Yes, sir.
[2:51] Those are fine, fine people.
[2:53] Yes, sir.
[2:54] I tried to, I had to get it out of the Christian context.
[2:57] You know, we had Jewel in the program.
[2:59] Right.
[2:59] You notice our first speaker was talking about, this is a Christian country, which it is, but we...
[3:06] Oh, boy.
[3:07] That's fine.