Nixon phone call with Colson on 1972 Campaign and Crowd enthusiasm

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OperatorMr. Colson.

ColsonHello. Yes, sir, Mr. President.

NixonDid I catch you in bed?

ColsonNo, not at all, sir.

NixonHeh. You had a busy day.

ColsonYes, we certainly did. It was a— My God, they really poured the crowds out there.

NixonWell, that's what a work out. I don't, it's hard to re- to know whether I gave Haldeman a little hell hell about not getting the What do they do their best to get the photo cars up where the crowds are. But, they they estimated 425,000, which means they counted every single soul.

ColsonOh, boy.

Nixonuh, you know, for in the in the in the cities that we were in. And I would say it was probably closer to 6 to 700,000. But, 425,000 is a pretty good show.

ColsonAny way you look at it, that's a hell of a number.

NixonAnd uh, they were enthusiastic, and so forth. Few hecklers. We had a hell of a rally in Nassau: 19,000 screaming, hollering people. Then I went over to Suffolk, and they had 15,000 at the airport at 11 o'clock.

ColsonGod.

ColsonOh, my God.

NixonWhen we left. 10:30.

ColsonNight.

NixonWell, I don't know. I don't know what got on the news.

ColsonWell, the television was fine, Mr. President. I I just saw glimpses of it because I was

NixonWell, you can get the get the get the rundown in the morning.

Colsonright. But, I had people Well, I had people watching it. Uh, Schurz came in and said it was excellent, kid. TV very straight. Uh, two to well almost three minutes on each of the three networks. And I happened to see NBC, which I thought was quite good. And he had

NixonWhat'd they run? What kind of stuff? It just they

ColsonThe motorcade, uh

NixonOr they They Did they concentrate on hecklers? Or did they concentrate on

ColsonNo, well CBS did. Uh, according to Schurz, CBS had more on hecklers than than uh

NixonThan they did on than they deserved.

ColsonAll right.

NixonUh, there were there were so few. There were just a few, you know, just [chuckles] well-placed, and so forth. But, Christ, the crowds were just screaming, and yelling, and hollering. It was something.

ColsonNo, NBC had some marvelous crowd shots, and the crowds closing in around the the limousine, and you reaching out, and and then they did have uh Come to think of it, they did have a couple of signs uh McGovern signs,

NixonOh, that's all right. There were McGovern signs all over the place. They they were shouting and screaming. They're doing a lot worse to us than we're doing to him. But, I don't want to do it to him.

ColsonI thought of that, watching it today, "My God, all the screaming he's done about [laughs] like this. Look at the people with the signs who are out there."

NixonThat's right. That's right.

NixonOne interesting thing that will please you. Rocky got the advance on the Daily News poll. You know, they take a poll.

ColsonOh.

NixonAnd uh, do you know what they say? This is O'Neill that takes it, and uh

ColsonRight.

NixonIt's 58-32.

ColsonOh, is that great.

NixonIn New York State: 58-32. What do you think of that?

ColsonWell, that's uh God, that's so encouraging. It It That really is. Is that does that come out tomorrow, or the next day?

NixonOh, we don't know, next couple 3 days, you never know, but uh

ColsonThey start about, yeah, about 10 days before.

NixonYeah, but 58-32 is their first poll, which is of course a total landslide. Hell, it can't change.

ColsonNo.

NixonThat's all there is to it.

ColsonWell, interestingly, Frank uh Stanton called me and and gave me New Jersey, which uh

NixonWhat'd he say?

ColsonCBS won't announce tomorrow. And it's a It's similar. Uh, it just amazes me because

NixonIt doesn't It doesn't It doesn't bear out MacGregor's concern that we ought to go and make a speech there?

ColsonNo, I was just thinking of that because MacGregor had said we were worried about New Jersey.

NixonLook, if New York is 58-32, you're going to take You're going to take New York, you're going to take Pennsylvania, you're going to take New Jersey, you're going to take Connecticut, you're going to take Rhode Island.

ColsonRight.

NixonAnd you have a chance in in in in in in Massachusetts, although just a bare chance.

ColsonOh, I would say with that with that kind of a spread, we take Massachusetts, but uh

NixonWhat do they have?

ColsonNew Jersey is 55-24, and that was taken yesterday.

NixonJesus Christ.

NixonThat's two to one.

ColsonYes, sir. Taken yesterday, of course that's a high undecided, but uh

NixonWell, that doesn't make That doesn't make any difference.

ColsonWith uh 600 sample. And, in the middle of September, they took New Jersey, and it was 58-24. So, that's three points

NixonYeah.

Colsondown.

NixonChuck, there isn't enough change to make it much much difference, really, you know?

ColsonNo, the same thing in Rhode Island. Uh, got the Becker poll today, it's uh

NixonWhat does it show, still holding?

Colson57-33.

NixonHmm.

NixonWell, that in Rhode Is- Rhode Island, you see.

ColsonOh, sure.

Nixon33, 40, 50, 57 Jesus Christ, that's

ColsonThat's a 24-point spread.

NixonUh, anything Anything else new on your your side?

ColsonNo, those uh those two polls were the only uh only things of significance.

NixonYou would've liked being with us today, Lucas. It was really great. God, every every Catholic school, the nuns were out, [chuckles] all the high school bands and the rest were out. The hard hats were out there with Don Rogers, you know. They uh

ColsonIsn't that marvelous?

NixonAnd and the interesting thing was, as you go by service stations, or garages, or bars, all of the workers are out waving, and shouting, and raising hell. And, the only and the people that were demonstrators were a bunch of asshole kids. The most ugly bastards you ever saw.

ColsonHeh. Well, it's a very Uh, I

NixonYou see, the TV, and I just can't get Haldeman's crowd to do to understand that they've got to take pictures of these people. They are the most horrible looking people. Oh well, it doesn't make any difference. I really think we ought to forget forget all that and just do the, and just kick the shit out of McGovern.

ColsonWell, [chuckles] I think that's what the hell we're doing, Mr. President. I think he's

NixonHow are your boy your boys uh you got any offensives started today?

ColsonYes, the Vice President was great today on the on the amnesty. Uh, we've got He He really was, he g- he hit some very good stuff on that.

NixonI hit it in my speech, too. I just used the I had dedicated a or laid the first wreath of the at the at the Eastchester thing, and I said, and the the crowd, we had hecklers in the hall, and I was very hard to talk, but I said,

ColsonRight.

Nixon"I just laid this wreath," I said it very quietly, and I said, "As I laid the wreath and stood back for the moment of silence, it occurred to me," I did it very in a very low key, I said that, "Instead of all this talk about amnesty for those who de- deserted America, let's honor those that served America." Shit, they come apart, they come apart.

ColsonThat's

ColsonIt's so It really has uh tremendous amount of appeal. Uh, uh it just brings the crowds out of their seat, no question about it. And that uh That today, between your campaigning and the Vice President's, we we didn't

NixonYeah.

Colsonhave any of our big surrogates who are out, but uh or mother surrogates who are out. We have uh Richardson kicking hell out of him at the Detroit Economic Club, and Wilcox tomorrow.

NixonGood.

ColsonWe We have people each each day this week uh with good, good, hard stuff that will I'm a firm believer, right to the very bitter end, will keep the pressure on this guy. Although, I must say, Mr. President, I just see nothing anywhere uh

NixonYeah.

Colsonof what you might expect to be to have started happening uh before this, but certainly to be happening by now, and that is a return to the Democrats. It just isn't. Any of them uh At least, none that I can find. I certainly didn't hear it on Sunday. And uh these two state polls, both taken over the weekend,

NixonYeah.

Colsonuh sure as hell aren't showing any any movement. The New York Daily News poll, what what Rocky gave you, it it's

NixonYeah.

Colsona phenomenal thing. I think that McGovern's constituency is a narrow, uh very, very narrow band.

NixonThat's the point, Chuck. That's the thing that these assholes like uh Mary McGrory and the rest don't realize, that he's got a very narrow constituency.

ColsonTerrible. He's got the He's got the long-haired kids, and he's got the dedicated uh peace nicks.

NixonWell, well, you're you're your psychology professor, you know? That's right.

ColsonYeah, Bergen County, New Jersey.

NixonYeah. This thing is I mean, if everybody voted, we'd win two to one. Now, they aren't going to vote, so But uh, so we'll hold it about 60-40, and that's damn good.

ColsonWell, could could conceivably uh be better than that. It's uh It's a very unusual year, and I just uh You You really have caught the mood of uh vast majority of this country. It's been

NixonMhm.

Colsonlooking for someone to speak for them.

NixonSay, uh one thing we did hear that I I know I mentioned all of them, but it may not. I think you ought to talk to uh some of the press guys, and Ziegler, he probably won't understand. Yeah, he will understand it, but you know, uh Rockefeller said, "God damn it, why doesn't somebody write the fact, I did it in I did it, of course, at all these stops, but I did it when I had the thing at the Statue of Liberty, and I did it again tonight. Throughout the speech, they were shouting, 'Stop the war,' and all that crap. And, I just plowed right ahead, paid no attention, just talking quietly, and the rest. And, the idea that we I am not being, you know, the handling of the hecklers is that I always do it that way, you know, I head on that way. What do you think? You think we could get one of our people Who Who the hell could write that?

ColsonWell, I would think uh I'm sure they I'm sure we'd get it out of the Jerry Greens uh who probably traveled with you and would have a good uh

NixonYeah, maybe so.

Nixon phone call with Colson on 1972 Campaign and Crowd enthusiasm

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Also recorded on October 24, 1972

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Nixon phone call with Colson on 1972 Campaign and Crowd enthusiasm

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on October 24, 1972

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Cite this conversation