Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 022-031
Date: Monday, March 27, 1972 at 1:05 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/022-031

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:05] Operator, you can hold a call to Colson and I'll call back.
[0:08] Mr. President, he has to be calling in right now.
[0:10] Would you like to take it?
[0:12] He's calling in now and saying he's at a phone where he can talk.
[0:16] Oh, okay, fine.
[0:17] All right, fine.
[0:22] Hello.
[0:24] Yes, sir, Mr. President.
[0:24] Are you still on the Hill?
[0:25] Yes, I'm in, but I'm in... Oh, I didn't need to get anything from you.
[0:29] When will you be back?
[0:31] Well, we're waiting now for Hugh Scott, and I would think within the hour I'll be able to leave here.
[0:36] What we're trying to do is to program Scott and Ruska to hold a press conference this afternoon and just blast hell out of the Democrats and try to call off these hearings.
[0:47] They're trying to reschedule them for Wednesday, and
[0:50] We're, Clark McGregor and I and Wally Johnson are trying to talk our boys into getting a stiff spine.
[0:57] We've got Ruska turned around and we're just waiting for you, Scott.
[1:01] Yeah.
[1:02] But I'll be back in about an hour.
[1:03] Yeah, well, look, I'll be, I have to do some diplomatic credentials.
[1:07] I may see you around.
[1:09] I'll give you a call around 4 o'clock.
[1:10] All right, sir.
[1:11] And in the meantime...
[1:15] Did they get Merriam or somebody to knock down that White House call?
[1:20] Yes, sir.
[1:20] Well, they're preparing an affidavit to knock that down.
[1:23] That can be very quickly knocked down.
[1:25] There was no call.
[1:26] What the hell was she talking about?
[1:27] Well, Merriam is prepared to say in an affidavit that he told her that he had had a call from the White House merely as a way of flushing the truth out of her because he didn't know whether she would honestly say what she knew unless he used that as an excuse.
[1:41] There was no phone call.
[1:43] In other words, he lied to her.
[1:45] He lied to her.
[1:46] Well, he used that as a ruse, in effect, to get her to tell what she knew because she was being very cozy about what she knew of the convention arrangements.
[1:57] So he used that just as a technique, really, to... Of course, this is a tough one because of the fact that
[2:06] As you know, they want to tie the damn White House right into the thing.
[2:10] Oh, sure.
[2:10] Well, this is... That was the bad break in the hearing.
[2:12] Well, what the hell.
[2:13] Well, it is, except it was in her memo.
[2:15] You know, it isn't... She referred to the call from the White House in the memo.
[2:19] It's no new news.
[2:20] It's just that the goddamn media take something like that and play the hell out of it.
[2:27] But I don't think that's playing as the major part of the story.
[2:31] Do you think the media are still playing?
[2:33] They're going to play some of the rest of it.
[2:35] Oh, sure.
[2:35] The television last night, 11 o'clock, the national television on CBS was pretty balanced.
[2:41] We didn't get a bad break out of it.
[2:43] The only thing they're doing is they're doing a very nice cover-up on Kennedy, but we're going to be able to get that out.
[2:50] Rusker is going to use that at his press conference.
[2:53] Kennedy's ruthless questioning?
[2:54] Yes, he's going to say that he cautioned the members of the Senate to be gentlemanly, and it's unfortunate that one wasn't.
[3:01] Engaged in a ruthless inquisition.
[3:06] Inquisition is just the phrase.
[3:07] That's what we're calling it.
[3:08] Hospital inquisition.
[3:10] That's right.
[3:11] Sickbed inquisition.
[3:13] I think they ought to hit him there.
[3:14] Damn media.
[3:15] You know, they didn't get that out at all.
[3:17] He was... Oh, the wires carried it prominently, but you notice the New York Times Graham story.
[3:22] He's been working against us.
[3:23] The Sanford Unger piece in the Post was damn good, except that for the first time we got a break in the Post, except to...
[3:31] He didn't mention the Kennedy thing, although the wires played it very heavily last night.
[3:36] But the Carlton White House, they'll try to knock that down today, will they?
[3:39] Yes, sir.
[3:40] That's being pursued right now, and I would hope they'd have that out early afternoon, that there was no such phone call.
[3:46] Yes.
[3:46] That's right.
[3:48] Our point today, Mr. President, I just really feel we're at a crossroads.
[3:54] I spent an hour with Rusker pumping him up.
[3:56] Our point today is to get our guys on the offensive.
[3:58] God damn it.
[3:59] Why are we defending our innocence?
[4:01] Nobody's been able to support the accusations.
[4:03] That's right.
[4:04] And Rusk is getting mad.
[4:08] And they should go on the offensive and say we are not going to continue this charade.
[4:12] That's right.
[4:14] Unless they have something to do.
[4:16] Well, it's their turn to show us where there's any proof here.
[4:22] Otherwise, to the difficult position we're in, as Eastland's playing some games with us, he's told...
[4:27] Marty at Justice, he said, don't you try to push us and force us, because if so, that will turn a lot of Democrats against Kleindienst.
[4:36] The same token, if we delay the goddamn thing into May or June, Kleindienst isn't going to be confirmed.
[4:41] Ever.
[4:42] Ever.
[4:43] So our best hope is to force their hand.
[4:46] And if they want to vote Kleindienst down, let them vote him down.
[4:48] That's right.
[4:48] That's right.
[4:49] But let's force their hand down.
[4:50] That's right.
[4:50] I'd much prefer to have him voted down than to have it hanging over Schleich Fortis.
[4:54] Exactly.
[4:54] Right.
[4:55] Exactly.
[4:55] Okay.
[4:56] Well, push that hard, okay?
[4:57] Yes, sir, and I'll have a report for you later.
[4:59] Thank you.