Nixon phone call with Colson on Watergate scandal

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Hello?

Morning, Mr. President.

You're at Miss Church again, huh?

Yes, sir.

I'm good for it.

Sitting here, had a long talk with Bob this morning on various things.

I must say that the plowing through the front pages of the Times and the Post, I'm just glad they don't affect the country that much.

My God, that Post story was, I mean, if you talk about hearsay,

You know, and somebody told this fellow that he saw a booth.

God Almighty.

It's incredible, really.

It's incredible, but I told Colin, I said, don't let everybody worry about it.

You can't do a thing about it.

Don't you agree?

Oh, I agree.

I don't think that kind of a story, frankly.

People read, except if you're interested.

He says Time is also going to use it, so Time magazine, so what the hell, that's fine.

Time doesn't have the influence it used to have.

It'll get a ride for two or three days.

It's just another one of the continuing battles we've had to fight with these people.

The fact is, Mr. President, when you think about it, we've been fighting this thing since June on the Watergate.

And we've seen absolutely no evidence of any reason on the public.

Harris makes that very

I remember you told me that.

Very effectively.

Later in the campaign, there was the lesson.

Yeah.

Right.

So, you know, let it be charged, countercharged, denied, and dismissed as politics as usual and part of the dirtiest campaign against the president ever waged.

That's just not the hell of it.

Right.

It looks like we're going to be here.

We're going to have the Congress here with us all week.

Yeah.

Maybe that's just as well.

Well, I was thinking this morning, in a way.

Yeah.

And they have to write about them, don't they?

Right about the Congress.

The government is operating, which doesn't raise any questions as to why you're not out campaigning.

That's right.

It helps with our people that want me to get out campaigning.

And perfect answer.

I got the Congress is here.

We've got to fight a veto fight.

We've got to fight for the defending ceiling.

We've got to fight against the detractors.

I'm not too unhappy about it, frankly.

Well, let's face it.

They're concerned about the fact that they now get a chance to override the water veto.

I don't know that that's too bad either.

I mean, if they override a veto, they override a veto.

That's all.

Let's make the goddamn case.

Make the case, and it's Congress against the president.

And I think we can win on that, right?

Well, I also think it's a possibility if the Republicans are smart and just don't bother coming back.

They don't get a quorum.

that this morning.

Well, that's the strategy.

In other words, if the Republicans come back, they're on the spot and have to vote to override the president.

If they're not back, they don't get blamed for not being back if there's no quorum because there's no vote.

And you can't ever raise it.

In other words, you can't ever get it up to reject the message.

All right.

What does Bill say?

Bill thinks that may be the strategy to do, to follow.

Let the Democrats make their own quorum.

That's right.

Which they can't do.

Can't do.

The other side of that, of course, would be to get

Just enough back so they can get a third.

Yeah.

And a loyalist.

Hold them firm.

Yeah.

We'll play that later.

I'm going to get...

Sustaining of HR, I think, is...

Does he have any chance?

He doesn't.

And I do.

I just...

I have never found the lobbying support for environmental bills that other people seem to have.

Right.

And I know that's not my own philosophical disposition.

I just haven't found it.

I really haven't.

You get the Sierra Club writing a hell of a lot of letters.

Right.

But you don't get that.

Anyway, so I think we could get the Senator Harris and some of the others who are concerned with the taxes.

Right.

Maybe build a little backfire like we did once before.

Right.

Well, in a sense, Chuck, it's a good reason for me to be around.

Oh, yeah.

And then we'll go up to Philadelphia on Friday, and that takes care of Rizzo.

Yep.

That's going to be...

you'll be happy.

Have you found a format to do that?

Well, yeah, I haven't told you because we're going to announce it tomorrow and just worked it out today.

The learning, of course, let me say, I staged this a bit, learning about revenue sharing, deep passing, recognizing that this is a historic thing, has invited me to come to Philadelphia and sign the bill there and the independent, you know, the

Independence Hall in the first Congress.

So you see there are 50 governors, 500 invited guests.

He says, no, it'll be non-political, but I'll have 20,000 people that are for Nixon out in front of that hall.

I wish you will.

I had the idea a few days ago and raised it with

And then I vetoed it myself because of SHAP.

And then I thought, I don't need to worry about SHAP because we're inviting all 50 governors.

That's right.

So I'll ride in with Rizzo.

In fact, no, I'm going to helicopter in, as a matter of fact, and we'll only have to ride a couple blocks, or four or five blocks.

So we don't have the problem of building a motorcade.

We don't want a motorcade.

We don't want it to be political.

So we'll just come right up to Innspender's Hall, sign that thing, and it'll be one hell of a show.

It reminds the country, too, that there's an historical achievement.

Yeah, that's a spectacular idea.

Spectacular idea.

So that'll take care of Pennsylvania.

And a few of the check-ins and the networks will say what we're doing.

They're damn right.

The Philadelphians will love it.

That's a great idea.

Keystone State, so that takes care of that.

And then New York is that following Monday?

New York, then we go over to New York to see this.

And it's on Veterans Day, which is great.

It'll be a damn good thing and a rally to get that done with.

And then we go off to Ohio the following Saturday.

I think that's good timing, Mr. President.

That's good.

That's a good way to pace it.

And I'm really pleased this week is, in that sense, I'm pleased that they're doing it.

The Philadelphia, you see, you shouldn't just go the whole week with nothing.

I just thought that was wrong.

And now that the Congress is in it, it wouldn't have concerned me quite as much.

But Philadelphia is perfect.

You go Friday with that, and what the hell, nobody can claim that we haven't gone north.

That's right.

I think that's a perfect capitalism.

It is.

Well, I get a few in from today's papers.

Admittedly, I haven't read them all through yet, but I get a few in from today's papers that they've kind of forgotten about.

They've almost written the campaign off.

It's all over.

Except for that jackass Washington Post.

You know, he that's made them selfish, savages.

Incredible, these people.

Post is incredible.

Thank you.

Sorry, I don't remember.

Oh, yes.

Maritime agreement, I think, cut a pretty good play.

That was fine.

There's no problem.

Not much for a story, but it's enough.

What's the story in terms of jobs?

People wouldn't know anything about maritime.

A little bit of progress in various fields and so forth and so on.

Yeah, the picture was good.

The television photographs last night were excellent.

We got a very good bounce out of that.

Chinese doctors was a good second story, too.

People liked that.

I thought in fact the stories were

Certainly, he's not visible right now, and he's not that ethics thing.

You can do that again tonight.

But it's dull as hell, Mr. President.

I still think people look at their pocketbook, their security at home, on the streets, their security, the fact that they don't want to go to war, and the nine-point program of ethics where there's going to be an independent and

That is not a nut-cutting, really not a nut-cutting issue.

And then you have to get to the Mitchell thesis, which I'm beginning more and more to believe in.

Really, it's an analysis of the confidence of the man.

The more they put in, the more he gets on television, the better off we are.

I suppose they're trying to attack the confidence of the man by the corruption charge.

That's right.

That's what they're trying to get at, I think.

You know, as you look at this in the long pull, that Watergate story broke in June.

It took four months, which could be just pummeling the daylights out of us, and it hasn't moved anybody.

The $10 million secret fund hasn't moved anybody.

Most people don't believe it, first of all.

As many people believe that people have a right to privacy to not have their names disclosed if they want to get to it.

That's not a big, not the big, touchy issue.

Apparently.

But if we believe the polls, it's not the big issue that the Democrats would like to have.

And I don't know where else they can come up with any stuff, because it's incredible.

I mean, I just, to do this post-story today, I get bored reading it because it's so convoluted.

Somebody said something to somebody else.

to a point where you... Well, God damn it.

If they want to talk about McCarthyism, what the hell is this?

Yeah, horrible.

It's his hearsay.

I mean, he told this or that in his foreign statement that somebody told him that.

He did this.

Now, what the hell is all that?

That's right.

Well, it's... Yeah, it's clearly...

It's... Well, the whole exercise that McCarthyism... Christ, there was a fellow arrested with a... A McGovern supporter arrested with a...

Firebomb down in Atlanta.

Barely made the words.

When we were there?

When you were there, yes.

Barely made the words.

Is that right?

And Christ is on page of all the Canadian stories.

No, that's a different thing.

The firebombing and the rest of it, that's just young people exerting their rights to protest against the war.

Revolutionaries trying to blow people up.

That's the other one with it.

Okay.

I think we've got everything except we're going to announce this tomorrow, the Philadelphia thing, so that'll be good.

I think that's a great idea, Mr. President.

And we'll have a little fight with the Congress this week, but that's not bad either.

Yep.

I know.

It puts you right in there as President battling to keep the taxes down.

That's correct.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Nixon phone call with Colson on Watergate scandal

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 15, 1972

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