Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 237-044
Date: Saturday, December 30, 1972 at 9:53 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: Camp David Hard Wire
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/237-044

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:03] Hi.
[0:03] You got everything all set for today?
[0:15] How about the cameras?
[0:35] Yeah.
[0:43] Well, Henry is, of course.
[0:44] I mentioned him as Tory money, so he doesn't know how to handle it and so forth.
[0:51] But Henry is just better.
[0:52] I'll raise all of Henry's dollars.
[0:55] He's got a call.
[0:55] So, you know what I mean?
[0:56] He's got to let Timmons call him.
[0:58] He's got to give him the back, but...
[1:16] How did Dennis handle you?
[1:25] Yeah.
[1:25] He's pretty.
[1:35] Sure.
[1:59] Oh, they might.
[2:00] The whole, what about, what about the scalpel that he said to do?
[2:11] Is he going to go over there and be there when the briefing takes place?
[2:13] What about you?
[2:16] Have you gone over?
[2:27] Yeah, you ought to go over it.
[2:41] I'd like to get your reaction in here.
[2:48] All right.
[2:49] Rather than talk to you right after the briefing, that means nothing, I would say.
[2:53] I'll give you a ring at about 1130 or so to see how you value the name of the promoter sitting around.
[2:55] Good.
[2:55] Right, right, and also the main thing,
[2:56] I mean, if they're accurate, you can be right on the mark.
[3:13] Good.
[3:17] Good.
[3:18] Good.
[3:18] How about the, I think this is an interesting thing about this congressional stuff.
[3:22] It's just been sort of stirred up by the media, hasn't it?
[3:24] Yeah, they've gone out.
[3:25] I mean, but this all sucks, so.
[3:26] Pretty rough.
[3:28] I mean, it caused a national outrage and all that sort of thing.
[3:40] Yeah.
[3:40] Don't you really think somebody ought to go and look after the security of the state that much?
[3:42] But I really think he ought to just kick right in the ass.
[3:44] But very, very hard.
[3:53] You won't do any good with him.
[3:55] But it won't do any good in the sense that it's a very common type.
[4:08] But it's what we'll do good with him.
[4:08] But it was in the White House column.
[4:10] We're just going forward with that.
[4:17] So what do you want to crack?
[4:22] You can chuck like a Wilkins or a Devine or something like that.
[4:24] Yeah.
[4:24] Yeah.
[4:24] Devine.
[4:24] Devine.
[4:24] Devine.
[4:25] But I don't know.
[4:28] Of course, with all this rumbling around and so forth, I still don't think, I know I may be wrong, but it may be that as the concrete pops off too, but he kind of like pops off and he makes his decision.
[4:44] But I can't see the great sort of, what do they call it, outrage in the country myself.
[4:50] I don't know.
[4:51] What are you getting from Settlinger?
[4:53] Let me hold you to measure hearing them.
[5:05] But the vibe was that he doesn't see this great interest, and the interest is less than that of every one.
[5:20] Why then are these guys getting into this column?
[5:28] Well, they lost the election, and well, when I say they had, the Democrats.
[5:32] And even though they weren't musky, they figured, well, we've got to chop the president down.
[5:48] But a saxophone, why does he get into it?
[5:49] Yeah.
[5:49] Yeah.
[5:50] Yeah.
[5:50] Then we sent him on a trip, and he came back and said his son changed his mind or something.
[6:00] Yeah.
[6:00] Yeah.
[6:00] But I tell Scott,
[6:01] I think Scott's the one that ought to call the section.
[6:07] This ought to make Scott happier than a clam.
[6:09] Who the hell is going to call him?
[6:13] Is Henry here or what?
[6:15] I just hope that if somebody has told Henry, I told him to call people, that he sits up there and says, well, I shouldn't call anybody.
[6:21] Everybody will understand this.
[6:22] Nobody understands a goddamn thing.
[6:23] They'd like to be informed.
[6:48] Well, I think that's good.
[6:53] And Mansfield, of course.
[7:10] Right, so you've got the top leader, then you've got all the leaders.
[7:15] The part that's an elegance is Skelly should make the offense.
[7:18] It's not a decision at all.
[7:32] You see, let me explain.
[7:32] The decision I made was to bomb Obama.
[7:35] Then, when we had serious negotiations early in October, I temporarily suspended below and above the North for money in parallel.
[7:46] But with a clear understanding that as long as negotiations were serious,
[7:48] spent a little bit money.
[7:51] It was only when they then became unserious and after an impasse that we just resumed what we were going for.
[8:04] You get the pipe.
[8:05] That's the pipe that I trust Skelly and I don't know.
[8:07] As a matter of fact, all of that is going to be washed out by the United States.
[8:11] Provided they don't display it as being we were forced into it.
[8:15] That's the one damn thing I don't want to see coming.
[8:18] Are you worried about that?
[8:29] You don't think so?
[8:31] The fact that it was forced into it by the left wing?
[8:37] I thought it was good for it.
[8:50] All right, good luck.
[9:03] Bye.