Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 169-016
Date: Wednesday, June 20, 1973 at 9:38 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.
Recording device: Camp David Study Table
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/169-016

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.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] Morning, Mr. President.
[0:03] Hi, Al.
[0:04] Yes, sir.
[0:04] How are things going down there?
[0:06] Oh, just fine, sir.
[0:08] Good.
[0:08] All right.
[0:09] Well, we were up here to use an up gut, so we got to give us a bit.
[0:16] We don't have to be together too much.
[0:19] It's going to be a long day.
[0:20] Yes.
[0:21] Yes, it will be, Al.
[0:25] I talked to Mel Lair this morning.
[0:30] It was a wire piece out.
[0:32] SEC investigators in New York wanted to talk to him about a man named Ball.
[0:41] Allegedly, he had intervened.
[0:43] The inference was he had intervened on behalf of this fellow in the Security Exchange Commission.
[0:49] Defense is going to handle this thing.
[0:51] It was a very innocent...
[0:53] Luncheon meeting with this guy and a number of other business people that Laird had periodically.
[0:59] Oh, well, that's one thing I'm sure of.
[1:01] Laird is just... Oh, yes, it's all right, but, you know, they're just trying to run something.
[1:06] I don't think Laird ought to take it on because... No.
[1:08] Hypo's a... No, no, no, no, no, no.
[1:11] Absolutely, absolutely.
[1:13] It's amazing, isn't it?
[1:14] By golly, the way they start to go after everybody, don't they?
[1:18] Yeah, they're after everybody, and the vice president's been very nervous.
[1:21] He called me.
[1:22] I know.
[1:24] I know.
[1:24] And you decided to have Harlow try to put you in here.
[1:29] He was in here, so I did it to George Bush on the first run.
[1:33] That's good.
[1:34] That's good.
[1:36] And Senator Bell wasn't as responsive as he might have been, although he's damn upset about it.
[1:43] So Buzard is just going to talk about the report of intimidating actions to Elliot today.
[1:50] Just drop a tag, you know, just sort of say we ought to be sure of this.
[1:57] Talk to Elliot about what they think, that everybody's even being employed in Monagno.
[2:05] Yes, that are really inappropriate, and he ought to just look into it and be sure that it is right.
[2:12] The Attorney General of the United States should look into something that is there intimidating the Vice Presidents.
[2:19] of fact.
[2:20] Don't you think so?
[2:21] You're goddamn right, yes, sir.
[2:22] As a matter of fact, the Attorney General ought to be a little bit more concerned about the President, too.
[2:27] He has been.
[2:28] There ain't no doubt about that.
[2:29] Of course, I know that.
[2:30] He knows that.
[2:31] I know.
[2:32] I know.
[2:33] Good.
[2:34] But, uh, that's about, uh, all that's really new.
[2:39] Right.
[2:39] We've got a lot of the Dean crap.
[2:41] Uh, I think we're on his way down.
[2:43] He has all the, uh, the latest, uh, more stuff, uh,
[2:47] More stuff, more of the old stuff.
[2:50] The stuff on Dean, of course, is riding very heavily.
[2:55] But the Dean is infuriated at the committee and has refused to talk to them because of the leaks about his situation.
[3:06] Cox has moved to close.
[3:08] Now, he shouldn't take any comfort from Cox's action.
[3:11] Oh, God, no.
[3:13] Because that...
[3:14] He's probably trying to build a case for immunity for him.
[3:20] Immunity, you mean?
[3:25] Yes.
[3:25] Well, we know what Cox is after, so on the surface it looks good, but it isn't.
[3:33] Well, I'll talk to Ron about the Iraq area.
[3:37] But as far as the crap is concerned, I trust there's nothing new, no bombshells?
[3:41] No, no bombshells.
[3:42] There was a reference to the IRS business today that the dean allegedly told the committee that you had said that the Democrats used the IRS effectively.
[3:58] It's time we did or something.
[4:01] I did.
[4:01] That's true.
[4:02] That's true.
[4:03] That's totally true, Al.
[4:11] They did use it.
[4:15] And we talked about it.
[4:17] We talked about getting something out.
[4:19] Well, they're going to be very ginger about that.
[4:21] I talked to Fred yesterday.
[4:22] He made it very clear to the committee that, yes, there was an investigation of Larry O'Brien.
[4:28] That's right.
[4:29] This is what the meeting was about.
[4:30] That's right.
[4:32] So they don't want to even talk about that.
[4:36] Yeah, yeah.
[4:37] Oh, well, we can expect some more of this.
[4:39] Let's just get it over with.
[4:40] That's right.
[4:41] And don't be concerned about it.
[4:45] Oh, no.