Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 45 › Conversation 045-093

Nixon phone call with Ziegler on Watergate scandal and Press relations

Tuesday, May 1, 1973 · 2:59 PM–3:01 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation045-093 on Tape 45StartTuesday, May 1, 1973 at 2:59 PMEndTuesday, May 1, 1973 at 3:01 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 045-093 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler discuss the fallout from recent press briefings regarding the Watergate scandal, specifically focusing on the handling of FBI file processing and the resignations of H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Nixon expresses intense frustration toward Leonard Garment, threatening to fire him for a memorandum that allegedly cast his former aides in a criminal light. Ziegler reports on the press's current disposition and the established communication boundaries regarding the authority of Elliot Richardson. The call concludes with Nixon instructing Ziegler to keep an upcoming Cabinet meeting brief and to frame the proceedings as a standard administrative transition.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Yes, sir.
You survived?
I think so.
Yeah.
What are the jackals after you this time about?
Well, we went through the, you know, the questions relating to the FBI men here, and that I think is fairly well put into perspective.
They're conducting investigations.
No, no.
The FBI?
Yeah.
no the men in other words in terms of supervising the the processing of the files and so forth clear that bob and john uh and those leaving totally uh agree with this procedure and indeed one of the done and not to cast no aspersions and the story's moving fine then that goddamn garment shouldn't have put that out the son of a i'm going to fire him tomorrow that was a terrible thing for him to do to make them appear like criminals by having them in
fire his ass out, believe me.
Well, I think the point I'm making is that it doesn't make them come off that way.
He intended it that way.
Not damn his Jewish soul.
Go ahead.
Well, then we went through a series of questions on the— Did the president know— No, no, no, not at all.
The Richardson authority, which you had given to him and so forth.
And that went fine.
When they came to the point of asking substantive questions, I simply said that both Richardson and the department who you had placed in the positions of, you know, responsibility here had indicated that you should not comment on any substantive matter.
So that seemed to hold that.
The question which we had talked about and anticipated on what
What would I say in terms of the Washington Post?
And I said it, so that's out of the way.
Good.
But the attitude and the tone in the press room today was not belligerent or disrespectful to the presidency in any way.
The meeting at the cabinet will be very brief, you know.
Yes, sir.
It'll be no more than 20 minutes.
All right.
And you just say the president just laid out the procedures that will be followed.
No, the two men are left, and that was all.
Very good.
The attitude was very good.
Is that clear?
Yes sir.

NARA Description

On May 1, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 2:59 pm to 3:01 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 045-093 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 45-93

Date: May 1, 1973
Time: 2:59 pm - 3:01 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Ronald L. Ziegler.

[See also Conversation No. 433-27]

     Watergate
          -Ziegler’s press briefing
                -Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] activities with the files
                      -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman
          -Leonard Garment’s memorandum
                -Dismissal of Garment
                -Garment’s Jewish background
          -Ziegler’s press briefing
                -Elliot L. Richardson’s authority
                -Washington Post
                                             -64-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                             Conversation No. 45-93 (cont’d)

                 -Attitude of press
           -President’s instructions to Ziegler
                 -Cabinet meeting
                       -New staff members
                              -Resignations of Haldeman and Ehrlichman

Also recorded on May 1, 1973

  • 045-091 2:51 PM · 51 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:51 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 433-024 2:51 PM · 49 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:51 pm to 2:52 pm.
  • 045-092 2:54 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:54 pm and 2:59 pm.
  • 433-025 2:54 PM · 22 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 2:54 pm.
  • 433-026 2:54 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:54 pm and 2:59 pm.
  • 433-027 2:59 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:59 pm to 3:01 pm.
  • 045-094 3:01 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:01 pm and 5:35 pm.
  • 908-017 3:07 PM · 35 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:07 pm and 3:10 pm.

All 181 conversations from May 1, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 045-093, May 1, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/045-093 (accessed October 5, 2026).