Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 194-020
Date: Saturday, June 24, 1972 at 7:12 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: Camp David Hard Wire
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/194-020

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Hello.
[0:03] I guess talking to Bob earlier this afternoon, I was very interested that Humphrey was a rough on the cover today.
[0:09] Did you see that by any chance?
[0:15] It's the hardest he's hit because, you know, he really laid it on the line on welfare, on defense.
[0:22] Yeah.
[0:26] He said, don't turn around.
[0:30] Yeah.
[0:33] All right.
[0:39] Yeah.
[0:44] He said that we'd get labor if we worked on it.
[0:46] All right, he's hurting most people.
[0:55] To visit the Bay up, I was glad to do it.
[0:57] I didn't feel that any publicity, but I really have to
[1:01] Well, you know, they wanted me to announce it and have...
[1:06] If I had done that, I'd have had 150 press people and television cameras that would have talked to me about it.
[1:12] I don't know how it played, but it was a nice thing, really, a very nice, warm story.
[1:16] What we did, by just flying over it and not stopping, you know, I just went and talked to the folks a little.
[1:28] I don't think I played it.
[1:35] Over and over, people said, we didn't know anybody cared.
[1:39] And there was a marvelous little picture of a little Negro child about 10 years old who held my hand all for 20 minutes as we walked around.
[1:50] She was scared to death.
[1:53] By the way, yeah, what else is new?
[1:55] But I really think though that this Democratic thing there
[1:59] platform and the rest is getting very, very interesting.
[2:02] What do you think?
[2:03] Or do you think that whatever they've done, they've got it completely under control?
[2:09] Now, can they keep everybody from raising hell?
[2:15] Platform thing.
[2:28] That's probably the algorithm
[2:36] Why the hell do you think Kennedy said that?
[2:49] I'm just curious.
[2:50] What?
[2:51] Kennedy can't believe that.
[2:52] Why did he say it?
[2:55] You don't make sense.
[3:06] Incidentally, I thought McGregor made a classical error in coming out for normalization of relations with Cuba and Chile.
[3:13] What do you think?
[3:15] Did you see that?
[3:17] I hope that gets down.
[3:18] I trust that gets down to the Miami people.
[3:22] They should really get excited now, you know.
[3:25] Is it, will it get down there?
[3:27] Because it was a small story that pressed deliberately to help inflate it down.
[3:30] It's a hell of a statement.
[3:38] Good.
[3:41] What'd they say?
[3:49] They've got to substitute the word McGovern now for a few of these.
[4:01] Those poor Gibbons who were illegally in the United States will be sent back to the slaughterhouse.
[4:14] Are they in the bench now?
[4:17] All right.
[4:22] Oh, boy, good, good.
[4:23] That's a good place to have them.
[4:31] They read everything.
[4:39] Hey, what's going on?
[4:41] He won the primaries and everybody said he couldn't.
[4:44] Now he may think this is the country, you know, people can be convinced of that.
[4:54] And he doesn't think McGovern will move to the remote center then, huh?
[5:12] Yeah.
[5:15] Yeah, what do you say?
[5:22] And I think, incidentally, I'm just hoping that he puts Mills on the ticket, don't you?
[5:27] That's what it's going to be, I think, don't you?
[5:36] Really?
[5:38] Is Gilligan Catholic?
[5:42] Let's go.
[5:43] We got to help him.
[6:52] But McGregor will come out for this.
[6:54] Has he been against it?
[7:00] Good.
[7:00] All right.
[7:00] All right.
[7:18] All right.
[7:19] All right.
[7:19] All right.
[7:19] All right.
[8:01] Right.
[8:05] Yeah, speaking of it, in L.A., the use of the television thing that I'm here at the moment, that 55-second spot I did on the bus, it played on, it was carried on all three networks.
[8:26] It was carried otherwise, or they cut out the part that's helpful.
[8:32] with regard to the Constitution.
[8:39] That's a cross-check, right?
[8:46] That's true.
[8:47] I agree.
[8:53] Well, it certainly does for us, but we've got to continue to hit the damn thing, so we've got to keep repeating.
[9:01] I thought it would hurt us.
[9:06] Yeah, they're all for it.
[9:09] They're for busting the meat.
[9:28] The reason, basically, is what we call Middle America, which McEverett's not with, he's not for, and I am.
[9:39] He's for the Eastern intellectual elite.
[9:50] Very well, last night, when he was there, he said the only thing that is delaying peace in Vietnam is McEverett.
[10:00] He said, if it weren't for McGovern, we'd have a negotiation right away.
[10:04] See, because McGovern has said it.
[10:06] The day is inaugurated, and he brings it right home.
[10:08] Well, what the hell?
[10:09] If you were in North Vietnamese, what would you do?
[10:10] You'd wait.
[10:14] That's what I mean.
[10:16] I mean, Henry and others shouldn't say it at this point, but I hope that some of the other people, the columnists, will start saying it.
[10:37] The government is sabotaging peace.
[10:41] This is not a bad thing.
[10:46] Let me tell you, they're not being any sort of fail in the battlefield.
[10:50] They're failing at attacking.
[10:53] They're crumbling up north.
[10:55] Now what the hell is going to keep them alive?
[10:59] Just the hope they get a president in who will bug out.
[11:07] Oh, did he?
[11:07] That's good.
[11:07] Absolutely.
[11:08] That's right.
[11:40] Particularly with these black pockets she's got.
[12:09] It begins when the test, which is what, two weeks?
[12:25] Their platform that begins must begin next week.
[12:36] Well, I didn't.
[12:36] I didn't.
[12:37] I'm just doing what the platform told me to.
[12:44] Well, then try, okay?
[12:49] Okay.
[12:50] We'll see you.