Conversation 143-009

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Good afternoon, Mr. President.

Are you having a quiet Sunday?

Yes, sir.

Just sitting out in the sun and swimming in the pool.

You have a pool in your backyard?

Yes, sir.

That's good.

It's a lifesaver.

Where do you live?

It's in McLean, Mr. President.

How long does it take to get out there?

About 15 minutes.

Is that all?

Yes, sir.

They must know it's a freeway, that's right.

And it's just over the bridge, but...

So it gets close to the district, but it's...

It must be a good choice.

Oh, it's lovely.

So much better than living in that miserable Georgetown.

Oh, I hate that.

All those rats and...

I don't even like to drive through Georgetown.

Oh, God, you know, I think the Secret Service is afraid to go through there.

Well, I don't blame them.

It's a crummy place.

It reminds me of Harvard Square in Massachusetts, which I also dislike.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, how's the... How's the...

Well, I think very good, Mr. President.

I was pleased that neither the Star nor the Post played the McGovern charge on the Watergate as page one.

The Times did.

I understand that around the country it was not a page one story.

And it was almost a predictable thing, I guess.

What he said?

Yeah.

Was exactly what I was going to say.

I think somebody ought to have slept and said, now, look, either put up or shut up.

Well, one of the reporters, an interesting thing, one of the reporters said to him, what evidence do you have of that?

And he finally backed down and said, well, I have no evidence, but it's obvious they haven't answered all the questions, so I'm going to keep pounding them through this campaign until they do.

I talked to Clawson and Dick Moore and others about it today.

We got the Justice Department to put a response out immediately.

That was good.

Peterson, I saw that.

Right.

I think what my own judgment on it, and...

The others feel the same way about this, is that we should let him play this out for a couple of days, or even a week.

And if he continues to pound it, then pick the right person to go forward and say, now, maybe even blindly to go forward and say, now, wait a minute, this has just gone far enough.

This is the worst kind of innuendo and smear, and either put up or shut up.

I mean, this is...

I almost think he...

We almost let him overplay his hand.

I think I'd let it go a week, I think.

Maybe you're right.

Rather than one or two days, because he's likely to... People may just... You never know.

People may tire of it a bit.

I think that's quite a likely possibility, plus the fact, I think, Mr. President, that he sounds desperate as hell.

I saw him on TV last night.

You did?

On the evening news yesterday, and he looked

angered.

He looked mean.

And we know from the polls that that doesn't help him when he does that.

In other words, the only thing he had ever going for him was this Mr. Clean, nice guy, honest, open fella.

And when he gets in there and gets vicious, and remember what that Harris poll found, that only 11 percent of the American people thought you had anything to do with the Watergate.

And when he charges that and charges it in the mean way that he did yesterday, I don't know.

I don't

I kind of have more confidence in the good judgment of the American people.

I don't think they buy that.

Plus the fact that no institution, government at least, has a higher reputation than the FBI.

We made the point over and over that they conducted a thorough investigation.

People think grand juries, you know, they don't really think that a grand jury can be rigged.

They consider a jury something independent, part of the court system.

And he was directly asked, was he accusing us of fixing the grand jury?

And he said, well, I wouldn't go that far.

Now, that's pretty rough stuff.

I think we ought to see how it plays out.

I think he may try to keep this issue alive, and it could backfire on him.

It could make him look more desperate, and it might give us an opportunity to really step on him hard.

Yeah, yeah.

If he does do this.

And frankly, I'd rather hit him right now on the error that he made on the wage and prices controls.

Yeah.

And stay off of this.

And stay off of this, sure.

That's right.