Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 045-146
Date: Wednesday, May 2, 1973 at 2:22 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/045-146

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:03] Yes, sir.
[0:04] You survived your conference?
[0:05] Yes, I sure did.
[0:07] Yeah, okay.
[0:08] Anything new come up that I should know about?
[0:10] No, just the things that we expected.
[0:12] Right.
[0:13] I said you had talked.
[0:15] Mentioned the vice president with you and indicated responsibilities for him without locking anything in.
[0:24] Good.
[0:25] They questioned heavily and hard on the
[0:29] you know, the trials per trial and that type of thing, but I stood on the position which we discussed that it wasn't appropriate for me to say anything.
[0:36] That's the only thing you can do on that, aren't you?
[0:37] Yes, sir, I think so.
[0:39] They went to the point, did the president order the break?
[0:43] No, no, no, no, not at all.
[0:45] Were we aware at the time of the speech that Ehrlichman had testified before the FBI on Friday or given a statement to the FBI on Friday
[0:54] that he was aware of a break-in and did nothing about it.
[0:58] He said, I just can't say anything, you know, prejudiced rights and so forth.
[1:03] That was their primary area of question.
[1:05] Right, right.
[1:07] They want to see whether or not I said something in the speech that I should have revealed, whether it wasn't a damn thing.
[1:12] No, no, I don't think it goes so much to revelation as it does to the question of confidence.
[1:18] That's what I mean.
[1:19] They want to know whether or not in the speech I knew something that I did not reveal.
[1:24] Yeah.
[1:25] That's right.
[1:26] Of course, I didn't know.
[1:27] I didn't know any about—I knew about the break-in, but I didn't know anything about the—I mentioned the activities, you know what I mean.
[1:38] Right, right.
[1:38] That's fine.
[1:38] But that's the way it went, and we knew we were going to face this.
[1:44] That's right.
[1:45] And that's how it's developing, but we'll face it.
[1:48] Yes, sir.
[1:48] Did you get out your economic statement today?
[1:51] Well, we're going to do that at 4 o'clock.
[1:53] Yes, sir.
[1:54] After your meeting with the... Labor management.
[1:58] Labor management.
[1:59] It would be a good idea to have a press picture of that, don't you think?
[2:03] All right, fine.
[2:04] On the economy show you meeting... Fine.
[2:06] All right, fine, Ron.
[2:07] Be in the cabinet room and... Fine.
[2:09] Okay, sir.
[2:10] Fine.