Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 196 › Conversation 196-003

Nixon phone call with Colson on Media bias and Labor legislation

Sunday, July 23, 1972 · 10:52 AM–11:37 AM ET · Camp David Hard Wire · 8 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation196-003 on Tape 196StartSunday, July 23, 1972 at 10:52 AMEndSunday, July 23, 1972 at 11:37 AMRecording deviceCamp David Hard WireSourceNixon Library record for 196-003 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss their frustration with media bias and the perceived weakness of White House staff and legislative leaders. They transition to a strategic assessment of labor legislation, specifically focusing on managing political relations with senators and union leaders like George Meany. Nixon emphasizes that cabinet officials must take direct responsibility for legislative negotiations rather than delegating to lower-level staff, ultimately concluding that they should abandon current stalled efforts in favor of a new legislative approach.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 17% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Well, how are you feeling this morning?
Finished with Connelly?
Yeah.
What time is this program?
And who are the others?
What time do they come on?
sure good and of course i must say that i looked at the star this morning my god i you know i wouldn't be surprised if you see that
A picture of a little boy at eight years of age.
Jesus, do you ever see one of me?
Any time?
Any time?
On the front page?
It is unbelievable.
But it shows you what we're up against.
That's it.
That's it.
People drag.
I know.
Someday some very rich conservative will put in a paper that just won't be done.
It's the only place where a paper can influence people.
You can't.
Nobody can buy the Times.
They'll never sell it.
The Star is a pretty bad property anyway now, you know.
It's an old family that's set to a strike.
Somebody just thought I'd buy the goddamn star and just go to work.
So I even ran a, just ran a, not a conservative, just sort of a, sort of a straight, straight up like Chicago Daily News kind of a paper, which, you know, read to both sides, but just didn't run at all against
I'm not talking about the editorials, I'm talking about the news coverage, the news coverage of Trills.
Particularly on the people that do the reporting, the coverage, the children.
The people that really are weak are our own people.
I mean, I must say that I, every time I meet with our legislative leaders, they really are like children.
They're so, they have an unbelievable mind.
They just have many skills.
And, of course, a hell of a lot of your house staff people were that way.
A lot of them are getting over it, but a lot of them, you know, they just panic every time they see something in the goddamn post or the time.
They should pay no attention.
Well, they
talk with Packwood on that Feenstrom thing, you know, whether he did get a hold of him Friday afternoon.
He said to himself, well, that's what he should have done in the first instance.
Yeah.
They, uh, Schultz, when I had talked to him about it on Monday, he had told me that he was at the Feenstrom and he had made the, he and Hodgson decided they couldn't get this thing through.
They had to have a different approach.
So I didn't get that in connection.
It happened in both meetings.
But apparently, the letter that he had dropped between the stools was having Silverman, I thought he was saying, go up.
And you don't do anything at that level there.
He was a proud senator.
I don't know what the hell happened.
But Schultz, I told him, he had to go talk to him.
He went with a few girls, so he probably missed it.
But did Hodgson go talk?
What was Hodgson going to tell him?
And how do you make it worse?
Unfortunately, you didn't get much play.
It's not only, the point is that I don't know whether, maybe you, which of course I just assumed everybody knew, but again, I'm just a goddamn dumb man, probably aren't.
The vote in the Senate is irrelevant, because you can never, at first and then at second, Mansfield would never bring it up for a vote.
The third point, he's the,
The third point is that in the House, there is no way that it would ever get out of the Labor Committee, because the Labor Committee is, the fellow from Kentucky has it, and he is not going to let Bill out, so the thing is dead.
We've had it there for two years, it's like that, so we have to make a different approach.
Right now, because he's a backward, at least, you know, he's a little erratic, but he's not a bad thought.
And God damn it, it's just not right to do this to him.
And then telling him we want him to work with us on a new bill.
That's what it is.
We told the teacher that we've got to find an answer to this thing.
We've got to find a better answer.
And Meany knows that.
Meany doesn't think the Railroad Act is worth a damn.
Meany's terrible.
But you see, that's the point that we're working on a new piece of legislation here, something that will correct this thing so that we can work it out.
Well, I doubt if it will be coming to the East Equator.
But the point is, I'm not going to see the faculty.
I don't want to get involved in that.
I'm not going to see any senator or anything like that.
But what has to happen is that people
from the cabinet and so forth have gotten to take responsibility for going and working on such things.
Right away, right away.
Knock it right now and not send up an assistant secretary.
I mean, you saw an opportunity.
Well, that's all right.
But now we've got to get him to calm down.
I don't care what he said up to this point.
It isn't going to be harmful over the last period of time.
And also, let's face it, it hurts us with the people that have given us god damn little support for our own business friends.
Let's face it, when are we hurt from these people?
When are we hurt from the railroad people?
When are we hurt from the truckers?
When are we hurt from these people?
Never, never, never.
They never supported us on Vietnam.
They never supported us on defense.
They never supported us on health.
You know what I mean?
They were against it too.
That's right.
They don't want compulsory arbitration either.
Yeah.
That's right.
I know.
I'm not going to worry about it now because there is no strike.
Yeah.
The relations with unions are making it possible to sell the drink.
That's the important thing.
I all worked out with the...
There's no...
Nothing following between the stools and the grocery range and so on.

NARA Description

On July 23, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 10:52 am to 11:37 am. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 196-003 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 196-3

Date: July 23, 1972
Time: 10:52 am - 11:37 am
Location: Camp David Hard Wire

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

[See Conversation No. 136-19; three items have been withdrawn]

Also recorded on July 23, 1972

  • 136-018 10:15 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:15 am and 10:52 am.
  • 196-001 10:15 AM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:15 am and 10:52 am.
  • 196-002 10:15 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:15 am and 10:52 am.
  • 136-019 10:52 AM · 43 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:52 am to 11:37 am.
  • 136-020 11:37 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:37 am and 12:18 pm.
  • 196-004 11:37 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:37 am and 12:18 pm.
  • 196-005 11:37 AM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:37 am and 12:18 pm.
  • 196-006 11:37 AM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:37 am and 12:18 pm.

All 52 conversations from July 23, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 196-003, July 23, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/196-003 (accessed October 12, 2026).