Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 040-064
Date: Wednesday, June 13, 1973 at 11:22 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/040-064

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello?
[0:01] Yes, Mr. Pyle.
[0:03] Did you hear from Scranton yet?
[0:05] He called DeBona and indicated that he was going to do it, but he still hasn't given me his final answer yet.
[0:12] Well, the reason that I ask is that I'm going to put it in the speech that we're going to do it Saturday if he'll agree to do it.
[0:18] See what I mean?
[0:19] Right, sir.
[0:20] I've announced it.
[0:21] Do you see what I mean?
[0:22] Are you going to announce his name?
[0:24] No, no, no, no, no.
[0:25] Oh, goodness, I wouldn't throw the story away.
[0:27] No, but I meant that I'm going to send the...
[0:28] I want to put in the speech they said I will soon send, the way I've got it now, I'm saying I will soon send a new energy message to the Congress.
[0:36] I want to say that on Saturday he'll announce or, you know, or something like that.
[0:41] Do you see what I mean?
[0:42] Yes, sir.
[0:42] I'd like to be able to know if he's going to go Saturday.
[0:45] If he isn't going to go Saturday, well, it's important to know.
[0:48] Right, sir.
[0:48] Well...
[0:49] He's promised me a call back.
[0:51] He's done the check he said he was going to make with the boner and spoke as though he was going to do it.
[0:57] Okay.
[0:57] If I could wait about 30 minutes.
[0:59] You not only can wait that, but because I can change this one line up until 4 o'clock when we've got to start running this thing off.
[1:06] Right, sir.
[1:07] Well, he assured me he'd have an answer.
[1:09] I've just been working with Ray, and we've made a few changes, and I think it's got a good tone.
[1:15] How do you feel?
[1:16] Oh, I thought it was excellent.
[1:17] I really did, and...
[1:19] i think incidentally the more i look to scranton uh option here it's good it is good you got you know you got some staff people because they had problems with them that won't like this i don't care about that of course i mean scranton and the see scranton was all hung up on the war and on student riots and uh uh you know and uh you know
[1:41] marijuana and a few other things but he'll do this well i think he's ideal and i don't care about the staff people get the man in here right he isn't gonna give the store away no and i think we're all lined up well for this afternoon the way uh uh for the cabinet meeting uh cabinet george for you to you would just say a few words and leave right sir and then leave uh
[2:04] Then for the congressional bipartisanship at 5.30, it'll take a little longer because...
[2:10] I'll have to stay through the whole thing.
[2:12] That's right.
[2:12] We'll hold it until no more than 30 minutes in any event.
[2:17] We'll try.
[2:17] That's all right.
[2:18] Make it an hour.
[2:21] They'll want to get out of there.
[2:23] That's right.
[2:24] And we've got all the briefings lined on and the handouts, and I think we're going to have a good platform for this tonight.
[2:32] And we're working very intensely on the package to exploit that.
[2:38] Yes, sir.
[2:40] I think we're going to have a briefing and so forth.
[2:43] That's right.
[2:45] So we've got these two damn good things, and then we'll let them ride tomorrow, and I'm going to call in to Bryce, and I'm sure we can announce him tomorrow.
[2:53] Yeah, we must announce him tomorrow.
[2:55] I think we should in any event because we won't get Scranton or Toad by tomorrow.
[2:59] That's right.
[3:00] And I don't think we're ready on the message yet, are we?
[3:04] On the... On the energy thing.
[3:06] Well, it's almost ready.
[3:07] Yeah.
[3:07] It'd be better to do it Saturday.
[3:09] Let's do it Saturday and not kill this story.
[3:11] No, that's the reason.
[3:12] See, the Bryce story is sort of a sidebar.
[3:15] The Scranton thing is a big story and should be for Sunday papers.
[3:19] Right, exactly.
[3:20] All right.
[3:21] All right.
[3:21] Bye.