Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 024-134
Date: Monday, May 15, 1972 at 11:12 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/024-134
National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/646314584 (NAID 646314584)

This transcript was made by an AI model listening to the recording (google/gemini-3.8-flash) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Speaker names are the model's inference. Verify against the audio before citing.

[0:00] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[0:04] NIXON: Tried to call Ehrlichman and Lukash and can't get any answer. What- what do you know?
[0:07] COLSON: Well, we're- [unintelligible]
[0:10] COLSON: First of all, on the front reports, the fellow [unintelligible]
[0:23] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[0:31] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[0:35] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[0:40] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[0:44] NIXON: Well, it may be that the UPI guys [crosstalk] are doing it.
[0:47] COLSON: [crosstalk] No, no. Not necessarily, Mr. President.
[0:48] NIXON: Or the guy might be sick.
[0:50] COLSON: No, they did four interviews, which they are now running, [unintelligible] with the landlord [unintelligible] said that he was strange, had no friends, kept to himself,
[1:01] NIXON: Well, that's bad, though. It just came back in today's uh news summary.
[1:04] COLSON: Right.
[1:06] COLSON: Had Wallace literature all over the place,
[1:12] COLSON: Wallace bumper stickers all over the apartment. [unintelligible]
[1:16] NIXON: Right.
[1:18] COLSON: [unintelligible] nothing else. The apartment was searched by police.
[1:25] NIXON: Hell, no.
[1:26] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[1:38] NIXON: Right.
[1:40] NIXON: Right.
[1:45] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[1:57] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[2:12] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[2:15] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[2:20] NIXON: Yeah, just say he's uh, he prai- he's, he praised nothing.
[2:25] COLSON: Correct.
[2:27] COLSON: However, in Milwaukee, they went to his apartment. [unintelligible]
[2:34] NIXON: Good.
[2:35] NIXON: Are they going to put it out, or not? The most important thing is to get it out, Chuck.
[2:38] COLSON: Oh, they're going to put that out. They have to.
[2:40] NIXON: Get it out immediately, then.
[2:43] COLSON: Well, in fact, they think it's their problem. No,
[2:46] COLSON: the brother-
[2:50] COLSON: [unintelligible] the brother-
[2:54] COLSON: brother [unintelligible] one interview [unintelligible] Wallace party [unintelligible]
[3:03] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[3:14] NIXON: Crap.
[3:17] NIXON: It's a plot. It's a plot.
[3:19] COLSON: All right, well I got ahold of Pat Gray, and I called him- [unintelligible]
[3:27] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[3:32] NIXON: Well, he did it- that transcript of Wallace's button- if he was a Wallace man, he'd never cover himself with Wallace buttons.
[3:40] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[3:43] NIXON: That must get out very, very fast.
[3:46] COLSON: Right. Gray's got thirty men [unintelligible]
[3:47] NIXON: Right, good.
[3:49] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[3:52] NIXON: Yeah.
[3:53] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:03] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:13] COLSON: Right.
[4:16] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:19] COLSON: Right.
[4:20] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:22] NIXON: Two or three months.
[4:23] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:24] NIXON: Well-
[4:26] NIXON: Well, yes he could.
[4:29] NIXON: After the convention.
[4:31] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:43] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:48] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[4:54] COLSON: [unintelligible] 4-A [unintelligible]
[4:59] NIXON: Yeah, he was a [unintelligible].
[5:03] COLSON: No, 4-F. [unintelligible]
[5:09] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[5:23] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[5:31] NIXON: All right, sure.
[5:33] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[5:38] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[5:44] COLSON: [unintelligible] Clawson's back. [unintelligible]
[5:49] NIXON: Good, good. Just, just, just keep going.
[5:52] COLSON: Well, we're doing it on our own. Clawson [unintelligible]
[5:55] NIXON: Yeah.
[5:56] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[6:06] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[6:17] NIXON: The UPI ought to put that all on. That that was funny, Chuck.
[6:22] COLSON: Well, instead of that, Pat Gray is uh- they questioned [unintelligible]
[6:27] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[6:32] NIXON: Why, at a shooting? That's right.
[6:35] COLSON: Why would he be at a shooting-
[6:37] NIXON: Now, no, it's stage. Have- have- be sure Clawson puts it on stage. The whole thing was staged.
[6:47] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[6:56] COLSON: Right. [unintelligible]
[6:57] NIXON: Must get out awful fast, awful hard, right away, because look, Chuck, the whole Wallace thing is a is a problem.
[7:06] NIXON: If they don't know his background, probably very left-wing before this [unintelligible]
[7:16] COLSON: [unintelligible] that's what I told Pat. I said [unintelligible]
[7:22] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[7:27] NIXON: Well, and when and when- what he's got to write, what a background. He's got to have it.
[7:38] COLSON: Well, all he kept saying was that they were [unintelligible] the apartment, [unintelligible]
[7:43] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[7:47] NIXON: Where'd he get this gun?
[7:50] COLSON: Well, that's right. [unintelligible]
[7:55] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[8:06] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[8:11] NIXON: He got a .38 gun, and he gets down to Maryland. Now, how the hell do you do that?
[8:22] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[8:27] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[8:33] NIXON: We're not- deliberate. Sure, we know that.
[8:38] COLSON: I think that's it.
[8:40] NIXON: You know, you know though, you know how they- never forget how the media played the Kennedy assassination being a right-wing plot when it was a communist.
[8:54] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[9:02] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[9:07] NIXON: Right.
[9:09] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[9:13] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[9:18] NIXON: No, I know. But Gray- Gray will play the game. Wallace just wanted to get the true thought, goddamn, and catch the press.
[9:25] COLSON: Well, he has to [unintelligible] right? Now, it's gotta work [unintelligible]
[9:37] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[9:55] NIXON: The woman is not seriously hurt, was she?
[10:21] NIXON: The election's been affected. Won't be running against you. Well, I'm terribly sorry that Wallace got hurt, anybody [crosstalk].
[10:30] COLSON: Well, I am too. I
[10:57] NIXON: Muskie, all the other ones, what [unintelligible] Humphrey and McGovern, all the ones that get affected, [unintelligible]
[11:09] NIXON: Put him up. I've never said a ni- a decent- a bad thing about him. No, he's a decent man.
[11:38] NIXON: Muskie was vicious toward Humphrey then. Humphrey-
[11:47] NIXON: What about McGovern?
[11:51] COLSON: Well, the fine thing's all turning against Humphrey because everyone's saying, "What's Muskie doing that for?" Right.
[12:08] NIXON: What's going to happen tomorrow in Maryland?
[12:13] NIXON: He'll win it? He could beat us there?
[12:27] NIXON: Then they'll decide he can't run, that's that.
[12:39] NIXON: I tell you, I think we're right to order the protection for that Kennedy and that Chisholm business and all the rest of them.
[13:17] NIXON: And call the woman. Good.
[13:29] NIXON: 'Cause the Democrats don't want that, do they?
[13:39] NIXON: Then it gets down, however, to, in Miami, if I'd be only regarded as having bring them all of these people out of the convention, into the Democratic, get a ticket.
[13:58] NIXON: Let's see what he's got here.
[14:03] COLSON: Yeah, and all they're trying to do, it is [unintelligible].
[14:29] NIXON: I kind of hate to do it.
[14:48] NIXON: I just can't believe that Humphrey, McGovern would have this. Frankly, the bad taste to fly down, you see, to see Mrs. Wallace.
[15:19] NIXON: called her up [unintelligible]
[15:29] NIXON: Everybody knows he's no friend of Wallace.
[15:39] NIXON: And one thing we know what the headlines will be tomorrow, don't we?
[15:50] COLSON: Yes, we do.
[15:58] NIXON: Bremer? Bremer. He's 21, isn't he?
[16:08] NIXON: If you watch, though, the FBI is careful with the press, by the way. I hope they are trying to handle it. My God, how a Wallace man kill a Wallace? It's unbelievable.
[16:48] NIXON: Who would be who would be Left-wing, go that far? Yeah, agreed. The McGovern people would be.
[17:01] NIXON: Not the Humphrey people, McGovern's.
[17:08] NIXON: They want boy carrying the convention far.
[17:33] NIXON: If he come walking in there in a wheelchair, he'll tear hell out of them, won't he?
[17:48] COLSON: Well, in 15 or less-
[17:49] NIXON: Well, yeah, well, you're right.
[18:20] COLSON: eight-hour
[18:31] COLSON: What is it, an eight-hour?
[18:36] NIXON: No. A .45 would have really done him in, wouldn't it?
[18:47] NIXON: It sure wasn't a Saturday Night Special, was it?
[18:58] NIXON: Yeah, they're working there to see where he really got the gun, I suppose. Wanted to know where he got it.
[19:06] NIXON: So that's we've got both gun control-
[19:09] COLSON: Well, now, hell, none of this applies to gun control, none of that.
[19:18] NIXON: That doesn't reach him.
[19:27] NIXON: Be sure that our that, uh, Clawson and the rest, be sure that our PR people press the hell out of that.
[19:30] NIXON: Get the National Rifle Association on the phone right away—well, tomorrow morning.
[19:35] COLSON: All right, sir.
[19:36] NIXON: And be sure that they point out this had nothing to do with what they're against—gun control.
[19:41] COLSON: Right.
[19:56] NIXON: Is he by himself, or what about these other kids he's associate with? You don't know.
[20:01] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[20:25] NIXON: He's probably a little nut. Well, I think so too. That would be my guess.
[20:29] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[20:42] NIXON: Well, even nits can be—can be used, you know. But it happens.
[20:49] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[20:57] COLSON: I talked to [unintelligible]
[21:04] NIXON: Well, you know that sound—that sounded that they had something to do with the primary. Right.
[21:10] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[21:19] NIXON: What else is new in the other front?
[21:23] COLSON: Well, [unintelligible]
[21:37] COLSON: The people are blowing out [unintelligible]
[21:53] NIXON: Good. They never expected to win. How did Wallace do?
[22:02] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[22:12] NIXON: Isn't it something if they would win, what would they do? Wallace won Maryland?
[22:19] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[22:41] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[23:03] NIXON: Michigan's awful far.
[23:07] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[23:27] NIXON: Yeah.
[23:29] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[23:43] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[23:54] NIXON: Do the cast—the real—about the Soviet summit, because they think, maybe he'll come off, huh?
[24:00] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[24:22] NIXON: Yeah.
[24:25] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[24:42] NIXON: I think it's good.
[24:44] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[25:00] NIXON: They'll announce that tomorrow. If Wallace is heavily forward, won't you?
[25:08] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[25:11] NIXON: In other words, you think Wallace will dominate today?
[25:16] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[25:30] NIXON: Well, Wallace is going to be the tragedy is going to wipe out [unintelligible] take him out of it. Really bad.
[25:37] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[25:44] NIXON: Was it four bullets? Only one. Yeah, but the one serious one is going to have one hell of an effect on the guy, Colson.
[25:49] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[26:11] NIXON: The other guy, Humphrey—Humphrey said he's going to go to California anyway.
[26:18] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[26:42] NIXON: Because he knows—he's not going to shoot.
[26:46] COLSON: Kennedy said he's not going to shoot and Humphrey, they will, because they want to [unintelligible]
[26:54] NIXON: Yeah.
[26:56] COLSON: Protect Humphrey and Kennedy.
[27:01] NIXON: Yeah.
[27:05] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[27:22] NIXON: Oh, they're scared to death.
[27:24] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[27:42] COLSON: Whatever it is.
[27:52] NIXON: They will, really? Well, they don't have any [unintelligible]
[27:59] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[28:10] NIXON: Good, if they all call off, helps the candidate. If they all call off, it helps the candidate, Wallace in California. Why don't also cancel?
[28:19] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[28:32] NIXON: Is it?
[28:35] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[28:43] NIXON: Must have heard of a bolt out in the blue, though.
[28:48] COLSON: [unintelligible]
[29:02] COLSON: However, in my judgment [unintelligible]
[29:05] NIXON: Okay Chuck, bye.
[29:08] COLSON: All the same, we've had a great day today, Mr. President. Good night, sir.
[29:10] NIXON: Good.
[29:11] COLSON: We're on the march. Bye, thank you.