Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on George Wallace and Assassination attempt

28:47Yes, he closed it.
28:50Close it, please.
29:22I'll see you later.
29:23I'm going to check.
29:54He's not around?
30:00Yeah, he is.
30:00You never know.
30:02It's hard to bet you could be faking.
30:12Oh, oh, oh.
30:12That bullet neared his spine.
30:16I'll find out soon.
30:21Maybe not a pal-a-dell, it may be worse than she knows, but a pal-a-dell is the way to go.
30:25What do you think about a man hitting a shot on a shot on a bucket?
30:32He could be.
30:37He recovers.
30:37He recovers, he's going out and shotting again.
30:41People will want to take a very good shot and prefer their language.
30:50I don't think you're going to want him to campaign.
30:57You've got a hell of a problem.
30:57Well, Colston, God damn it, you've done it again.
30:59Screwed up my week.
30:59He's got me money for it.
31:01You're going to have to be handed people.
31:06You tell them to rub up Wallace a little bit.
31:08You know, how often am I saying the Bible?
31:10How often am I saying it?
31:11I don't hear you, sir.
31:12I don't hear you, sir.
31:15I said it this morning, that's what's so frightening to me about this.
31:20It really hurts people up.
31:23It's one of the amazing things.
31:25It's one of the amazing things that somebody has tried to assassinate.
31:36What does it do to make him a third party candidate now?
31:42Well, I don't know what it does.
31:45He's alleged to be a spy.
31:47That's not certain.
31:51Well, we're not sure.
31:52They don't know.
31:52One report is that they're operating now.
31:55He's got three wounds.
31:56One in his right elbow, one in his upper chest, one in his lower chest.
32:03The lower chest, here's the liver and lodge near his spinal column.
32:08You can't tell him it's not a center, but he is now paralyzed and leads down.
32:15Well, he's a gastroenterologist.
32:22He's the best kind of specialist.
32:26Let me ask you this.
32:28Now, can you really compare anything to Pat Gray?
32:34I want to find out who the son of a bitch is in China.
32:41You know, who is this FBI secret service?
32:44Can you get a hold of Rowley?
32:47The president wants to report on who it is.
32:49We just got a name.
32:51Ken Russell just got a name.
32:54Yeah.
32:54Did I ask you where?
32:55J.F.
32:55Rowley.
32:56That's Rowley.
32:56The president is here.
32:57I'd like to have a report on who this man is as quickly as possible.
33:01Before they cover it up, you know what I'd like?
33:02If you want to be done with that piece.
33:09Oh, I think it's likely that he is.
33:11Could be one of the same people.
33:14Well, they wouldn't shoot that many bombs.
33:16No, they would have shot him before, you know.
33:20Well, I think that's enough.
33:21There wouldn't be someone like people shooting themselves.
33:28It's too easy to kill.
33:29Oh, I think the guy, the guy has to be a son of a gun.
33:31I just don't think it's the right point.
33:34Yeah, I like that.
33:35Silly, I think it's Kennedy.
33:41where it was really the left wing rather than the right wing.
33:45They tried to make out what was on it.
33:47But the right, they blamed the right wing even though it was the conference.
33:51But how the hell did you do that?
33:56It shows you the twist of the story of the college.
33:58Well, at least one thing, the last couple of days, Chuck, Vietnam has been a little better.
34:02Sure it has.
34:03It may not hold, but you know, if it is better, what we did did it.
34:09Change of morale.
34:10Absolutely.
34:11I don't know if you can ever get it across to these sons of bitches in the press.
34:15They're all saying, that probably not going to happen anyway.
34:18They were down for two.
34:19They made too much of a case before.
34:21The week before, Newsweek, Life, New York Times, couldn't have been worse.
34:26We've gone through the days.
34:29It was over here.
34:30They'll document every single statement that they've released.
34:37It really makes no point to do it if you see what they were saying.
34:42The thing is, the buildup over that week probably would have been a deceit.
34:47It was never a deceit that I made, and I'm more comfortable with it now.
34:54Even if it had lost.
34:55Right.
34:55What was interesting was the fact that I asked Bill and said, I don't know, because it was so awkward, I don't know.
35:02But that shows that he smells what that means.
35:10Are they going to undercut the president before he goes to Russia?
35:14Hit him hard, he's going to Russia.
35:16Are they going to undercut Margo Hunts and the FBI?
35:23You know, this might be it.
35:27I think we've got these people.
35:28We're going to squeeze them now.
35:29I don't mean to say, but I think we're going to squeeze them.
35:58The stage was so beautiful, the media went down to do some of these closets.
36:04Now that they realize the media grinding their teeth now, it's hard to really show you this.
36:09They can't quite figure out what's happening.
36:12They can't quite hate the fact that the Moscow church is still on.
36:16Almost as cold as the matter is.
36:32Well, I opened the blue room, but I didn't have shaking hands.
36:38This is what it looked like.
36:41I thought this was all a false story to get you out of bed.
36:53You see, Clark was living here at five.
36:56They didn't get it.
36:57It'll never happen again.
37:00I swear to God.
37:08I make it up.
37:11No, I, the President, none of us, unless we can, will ever be in the White House again for anything.
37:20Anything.
37:20I agree.
37:23Let's see.
37:25I want, I want now.
37:27Oh, this year it rolled down this much.
37:55In whose custody is he in?
37:58Calm down, I want him to question right away.
38:01Who's his lawyer?
38:03I don't want to give it to your people.
38:06They're your people, aren't they?
38:08No, it's a...
38:09It's a terrible thing.
38:09We never let her know the details on this before the press set up for it.
38:11Yes.
38:11Stand by for the company.
38:14Okay, watch that.
38:14They're going to get us a full run and listen to him.
38:16He has to be the head of the police.
38:19fears and suspicions.
38:21Yeah, I know about that.
38:22The thing now is the identity of the assailant and all the particular times before they said, wait, I was there.
38:29I didn't have right of way.
38:31Ford knows where he's going.
38:33The big question.
38:35You don't know about that.
38:38I don't want to get away with this this time.
38:41They are to report to me directly.
38:44I don't want to read it in the press.
38:45I don't want to hear it in the radio.
38:47I don't want to report it.
38:48I don't want any cover-up.
38:49You know, this could be like Kennedy then.
38:52This son of a bitch probably is a dumb bastard, you know.
38:55He is dumb as hell.
38:57We've got to get somebody over there right away.
38:59Get early, Bob.
39:00Get early over there right away, Bob, to work on it.
39:04Don't you agree?
39:05The Secret Service will pop this up.
39:06They do everything.
39:07It isn't that they're not investigating this compared to the FBI.
39:11No, no, no, no.
39:12It's the Secret Service.
39:13There's no federal modeling.
39:14FBI, this man ain't here, so they can be sure.
39:17I thought we changed the statute.
39:19Yeah, yeah.
39:20Get the FBI.
39:21Order at my direction.
39:22The FBI goes in.
39:22Certainly, even the President can order them.
39:25I'm directing them on the suspicion that it's in.
39:28I have no confidence in the Secret Service, Bob, and you know it.
39:31I've never had that.
39:32You've got other bases.
39:32We're at one band.
39:33The Secret Service official was shot.
39:35He's a federal official.
39:37That's right.
39:37That base is linked to him.
39:46How much confidence do you have around him?
40:05It doesn't make any difference.
40:06I'll direct the FBI.
40:09I'm directing them.
40:11We've got to get going with these things.
40:15Is he on top of these things?
40:16Tell him to order the FBI into that damn thing.
40:19Don't just sit at it.
40:21John?
40:23We are not getting much out of the Secret Service on the BSA on the President's concern that- On the FBI right away.
40:29We need to know who it is, what's going on, and all that, because the FBI ought to be working right away.
40:34Yeah, Crowe over there had a question.
40:39Who's he talking to, Monday's team?
40:42Okay, question now.
40:45I just had a comment on this, and I'd love to hear what he's talking about.
40:53Earlier, yeah.
40:53John, just let me interrupt you a minute.
40:57You remember the horrible screw-up on the Kennedy assassination.
41:04We don't want to do that anymore.
41:06Rowley will know.
41:07He's going to accomplish it.
41:10He knows.
41:11He's carrying it.
41:14We don't have anybody to say what it was.
41:16I think you're a white house man.
41:17I know you know perfectly well yourself.
41:20get over there and question this son of a bitch right away before some communist lawyer or somebody gets on him.
41:28You see, we ought to know.
41:29Now we've had two hours of these shots.
41:32Where is the son of a bitch?
41:36Yeah, but what in the world should we know here?
41:39We're asked every minute.
41:41All right.
41:42Would you take charge?
41:43You take charge.
41:44You're to order.
41:45You order these people.
41:46I mean, first of all,
41:49I have no confidence in secret service.
41:52Order the FBI into the case on the ground, any ground.
41:58A better option than to order them into the case, they go out and call Pat Gray, tell him to put in 100 FBI agents if necessary.
42:05Find out.
42:06Now, John, you get over there.
42:09You get over to, and you question this man yourself in the direction of the president.
42:14Fair enough?
42:15I do order it.
42:16Why not?
42:18So what are you going to do then?
42:22Well, can you get Gray to do it?
42:25All right, Gray is better.
42:27Gray is better.
42:27Get Gray over.
42:28But what I meant is I don't want our people questioning him.
42:32I do not trust these incompetents of the Secret Service.
42:35All right, if you tell Gray, I want this is his first big case, he personally is to go over and question this son of a bitch.
42:44Fair enough?
42:46Good.
42:46Okay.
42:47Uh, I had the president just talk to her earlier, and she'll be calling you on, uh, whether Patrick is getting the FBI into this, and we're concerned about not getting the identity details on this, uh, getting the identity and details on the assailant.
43:10I'll be coming.
43:10Okay.
43:10Uh, hello.
43:12Dick.
43:12You probably have forgotten the Kennedy assassination.
43:16It was a secret service.
43:18It wasn't a wipe-out.
43:19It will be a wipe-out this time.
43:21I have directed the FBI to get to this case because there was a federal law that was under the Presbyterian Reserve Plan, John's second one.
43:30The main thing is to get somebody over there, I think it should be Pat Gray, and if not Pat Gray, yourself, on our side, who gets in and questions some of the batch before they left-wing press and rescues and doesn't, I mean, yes.
43:49What are they doing?
43:55But my God, you mean nobody can go in and question me?
43:59Why not?
43:59Because of Miranda and all the rest of them?
44:02We've got to find out the situation in place and we've got to put in there to see if a lawyer
44:17He said it what he is.
44:17Does anybody know anything?
44:19All you're dependent upon is the Maryland police.
44:21Now, good God, we've got a better FBI, huh?
44:23What are they doing?
44:29What have they found out?
44:41But the three teenage boys were doing something, too.
44:48Yeah, but I mean, this was the teenagers, the child.
44:58Well, the thing that we got here, Goliath was a 35-year-old man.
45:03Incorrect, they were teenagers, huh?
45:08All white.
45:17That's the point.
45:18You've got to be sure.
45:19Let me say, the first news must not be in the Washington Post.
45:22Just make sure that, God damn it, be sure that the FBI gets there before they do.
45:28That's all I ask.
45:29What are you going to do to sleep next?
46:16Okay.
46:17Jesus Christ, they're so screwed up, they don't know what to do.
46:25Now it's teenagers.
46:27I was a 35-year-old.
46:29This is funny.
46:31It's a story.
46:31You said that word is much better.
46:43It doesn't have a good sound to me.
46:47It doesn't have a good sound to me.
46:49I don't know what I'm talking about.
46:59I don't know what I'm talking about.
47:01Is that crazy?
47:04It's crazy.
47:06Absolutely crazy.
47:12President Hill claims to get on it and get Gray out there and get moving fast.
47:17Yeah, but I think... Mike is going to try to do a thing for Lamar.
47:20He's going to claim that he's going to do anything for Lamar.
47:22And President Hill is going to be assassinated before the fight tomorrow.
47:25And they will have made a story out of it.
47:27He's the right-wing guy.
47:31All right.
47:32Okay.
47:33Erdman.
47:33Erdman sees this problem.
47:34Does he have any confidence in the Secret Service?
47:40So, actually, I don't have any confidence at all in Rowley, but I do have some confidence in some of the Secret Service.
47:50Oh, I agree.
47:51But Duncan, if I recall, he didn't do what I said.
47:55Rowley?
47:56Well, Rowley says that they had to...
47:59a guy named Arthur Bremer who purchased a gun in Milwaukee, and he's identified as Arthur Bremer, and a gun purchase, and I can check that.
48:05And he's, they've got him at Prince George's Hospital in the Czech Republic now.
48:11And, uh, right off, he's in the jurisdiction of, of both, uh, Montgomery County and Confucian Secret Service.
48:19Bob, Bob, you've got to tell Earl that the Confucian here will kill us.
48:26We must get that to Confucius.
48:28He's responsible for that.
48:29He must have described it.
48:30He says, it's not really on.
48:32I can see that.
48:32He's talking to the Galileans.
48:35Well, I don't know.
48:36He got Miranda.
48:37He got these other names and all that.
48:41Does everyone realize that he's responsible?
48:42If they got Miranda and all that, they could still put a solid armed guard around the guy and hold him in a row and don't let anybody else at him.
48:50Well, Miranda, you can only care about it if you worry about me.
48:52Well, the hell with Miranda.
48:53The main thing is somebody from our shop has got to get in there.
48:56That's what Klein used to get through his goddamn head.
48:57What did John do?
48:58What did John work on?
48:59I don't know.
48:59Well, anyway, it never goes.
49:01Jeez.
49:02Did you know the way to do it?
49:08No, I have to go.
49:11I don't know.
49:11I don't know.
49:21What's your analysis?
49:28I think it would be
49:51The injury is not serious, as far as he will be.
49:53Otherwise, he can recover in time.
49:56He can't pay.
49:57Now, after this, he can stay in all the way.
49:59Third party.
50:01Why don't you agree with me?
50:04What's that thing?
50:08Even though he's got that little branch, this makes it smaller and not bigger.
50:12Scares the shit out of him.
50:1590% of the people, it stimulates them a lot at 10%.
50:19And because of that, he won't be violent.
50:22As a matter of fact, Bob has made a point.
50:26I think a hell of a lot of people will be afraid to do it after hours.
50:29They won't go in there.
50:30They'll get shot.
50:33That's right.
50:33What it does, Mr. President, is it makes it clear that he's a radical polarizer.
50:40I'm sure he is.
50:40I'm not sure if it was Bobby's case.
50:42Bobby was shot because he was a non-dan polarizer for the same reason.
50:45Same thing with Robert Kennedy.
50:46He could get away with things if they were in Wallace's hands.
50:49Now, the New York Times tomorrow will blame, some of them will blame me for it.
50:52Because they blame us on gun control.
50:54That's the way the attack was going.
50:56But we haven't done enough on gun control.
51:01Of course, there are damn good answers, but that's the only way to do it.
51:05That's our, that's the one area that's in trouble.
51:07What in the hell if we don't have gun control involved here?
51:09It depends on what that gun is.
51:12What they call a Saturday night special, which you can buy.
51:16for 25 bucks, then they'll save you the negligence of legislation.
51:23That would be the point.
51:25That would be the line of defense.
51:26He's not going to recover.
51:27If that went through his liver, his liver, do you think the liver makes a difference?
51:31Sure it does.
51:31The liver, of course, makes a difference with everything else, but does it with a bullet chunk?
51:37It depends on what it does to it, but if it went through that far,
51:45It was fired at close range.
51:46That's not a lot of damage.
51:49It has to do with, it never started at .1.
51:51It was a hell of a lot.
51:54What kind of a gun was it?
51:56.38, .45, .62, .22.
51:57.22, well, that's not a .22.
51:58God, you can't even tell a goose with that.
52:01Well, how close are you?
52:03And where it is?
52:08You ever say, oh, you know, I've got a sickening thing.
52:11It's that goddamn McConnery.
52:15to take some planes to come back to see him.
52:19Now, isn't that any more of a nice thing?
52:21I'm not going.
52:23I call her on the phone.
52:25That's good.
52:26I said to my doctors, I'm going to call her on the phone.
52:31I made a little statement out there, but I'm not going to go out there.
52:35You've covered it now.
52:36You shouldn't do it anymore.
52:38That other stuff that said the very old grandstanding,
52:43Yeah, and I think most people see through that immediately.
52:45I mean, when Humphrey said, take me to the hospital, he was like, for Christ's sake.
52:50Every single one of them.
52:51They stayed in Wallace all over the state of Maryland.
52:53That's raising these hatreds.
52:55Well, everybody knows that the last thing you need at a hospital when a guy's in some serious condition is a bunch of more people calling you.
53:01Right.
53:02Secret service agents.
53:03Like when they wanted you to go down to Houston during that Apollo 13.
53:06The worst thing you could have done is go down there and screw up the rescue operation.
53:09That's right.
53:10No, I think people see through that, baby.
53:14The political cause, Mr. President, is that these guys have been attacking Wallace.
53:18They've been calling him all kinds of names, having, offending his factors.
53:23They, however, you're not.
53:24You've never, you've ignored it.
53:26You haven't said, well, I said a nice thing about it tonight.
53:29Well, you did when you were in, you did when you were down with him in the, however, that started this case.
53:37So you will not draw any of the eye of his people, Mr. President.
53:43You said nothing nice to keep his people happy without saying so much that you make him... No, I told him quietly.
53:49I said, well, he's a fighter.
53:50We all admire a fighter.
53:53I said, he's got courage.
54:01He believes his convictions.
54:03He believes them.
54:03Well, I said, I think he's going to get up.
54:04He's going to be running against you next November.
54:07Is that what you said?
54:08Today?
54:09Yeah.
54:09She was kicking the pocket out there.
54:10Yeah.
54:48Let me say, there is any other person in this century except T.R.
55:10who would have done
55:13What you did, the best thing we did, what I did a week ago, Monday night, with no support, a week ago, I spoke to you about this and that.
55:21And Tom is right.
55:23He's right.
55:24And I am, too.
55:25And nobody else.
55:26And all of you, bringing it around to the Hill, and Brock, and Larry, and all that.
55:32But it not only was the right thing on the merits, Mr. President, but even though you couldn't foresee it, it brought the country together in the right way.
55:42You think it did?
55:42Yeah, absolutely.
55:43Well, if it didn't, it's okay.
55:45It was the right thing by God, and we did it.
55:50Well, I think it did in a way that it kind of knows if it works.
55:55It's going to work.
55:56Well, don't worry about that.
55:58I'm confident of that.
55:59We're going to screw these bastards.
56:01And then we've got to crucify them.
56:03Believe me.
56:04These saboteurs and the rest have got to be crucified.
56:07This is the time.
56:08There ain't no way for the Matthiases to come back.
56:11Believe me.
56:11No way.
56:12Or the Persis.
56:12He's never going to get back.
56:14If this works, Mr. President, this is when you get on the ground and you push your heel right through there.
56:20They don't deserve it.
56:22No.
56:22I don't think Matt Mathias and Chuck Bush do a little work.
56:25I'm going to Moscow.
56:26I'm scared to death.
56:27Well, Mathias, when he called me, he said, he said, you fellas have sure done a fine job.
56:32I said, what do you mean, Matt?
56:33He said, well, I never would have believed that you could keep the country in the mood it's in right now.
56:39I said, well, Mathias said that?
56:41Yeah.
56:43You see, where you fooled was that you put your case across very easily.
56:48That's right.
56:49That's the money.
56:50And the people responded in a way that the Doves still brought back to Cambodia.
56:58They responded then, but Kent State intervened.
57:01This time they did it, thank God, against Kent State.
57:03That's right.
57:06That's right.
57:06And, of course, bigger now because they did a bigger thing.
57:09Well, what's the thing?
57:11We've let go of that case up to this point by ordering the forthcoming piece of... We've done everything.
57:17We've done everything.
57:18And that was the prevailing strain that sounded all across the country.
57:21And what more could anybody expect us to do?
57:24The American people, well, we've offered ceasefire, EOW, but we will not impose the communist government against the liberal people.
57:30That's the only thing we have in our government.
57:32Do you want to do that?
57:33So they're on the side of communism, we're on the side of freedom.
57:35Who the hell could be on that?
57:36Is it going to disagree?
57:37The American people can be pushed just so far, Mr. President, but then all of a sudden they'll step on their backs and that's what we've done.
57:47I don't know if that's a very good sentence, if you don't think about it.
57:53Do you want it?
57:53He thinks about you.
57:54He's worried about me.
57:55Don't add to the secret service in Russia on this trip.
57:59No, I don't give a shit what those bastards say.
58:03They're wrong.
58:04Same as place I can be, it'd be in Austria and Russia and Iran and Poland, not us.
58:09That's it.
58:10All right.
58:11Get him the hell out after Austria.
58:14I don't want a lot of Secret Service around me in Russia.
58:17It would be the most horrible thing to have that big open car riding behind me in Russia.
58:22Believe me.
58:23That's not going to be done.
58:26Do you understand?
58:27We don't need it.
58:29Nobody shoots anybody in Russia.
58:33You ever heard of that?
58:34Only when they lie.
58:35Have you ever heard of a guest that do what they did to Kosygin?
58:40No, sir.
58:42It won't happen in Iran.
58:44It won't happen in Poland.
58:46Now, we're not going to have the Secret Service have 150 assholes out there bothering me.
58:50I'm going to be done.
58:52I'm sorry.
58:52That's understood.
59:02That's what we did.
59:06Well, it's hard to figure.
59:09God works in this mysterious way.
59:10Who in the hell did this?
59:12It's probably a lot.
59:13You've always got to figure something's going to happen that you haven't thought of or that you wouldn't.
59:21You can't say, well, Chuck this morning said, Chuck this morning said, oh my God, somebody's going to shoot him right now.
59:25We've just been talking about it.
59:26Do you have your staff in here?
59:28No, I just said, I'm working back to the meeting with the president.
59:32I said, all right, God, please, it's amazing so many things.
59:44He is a radical.
59:46He does rank them up, and he does it on purpose.
59:48He stands up there, you know, winding it up, building it up higher and higher, hitting the point he has demonstrated.
59:56He still does rank like an organ.
1:00:02All right.
1:00:03And relishing it.
1:00:04Well, he loves it.
1:00:06He concedes it.
1:00:07Incidentally, Mr. Wallace is an evil man.
1:00:11He's an evil man.
1:00:13And I think it's lovely, and I think McGovern is too.
1:00:16Because if McGovern believes in evil, Wallace uses evil, that's the only difference.
1:00:19You know, there's another thing, Mr. President, that made that Wallace, and that is that he's been the most security conscious of anything.
1:00:31He carries that big bulletproof, bulletproof, that he may have, he may have said, you know, this game.
1:00:37That made us scared.
1:00:40Because, you know, once there's an attempt with it,
1:00:43He also remembers another demagogue from the South, Julian Long, was shot and got through.
1:00:48They're going to kill him one day.
1:00:51Maybe he keeps it up, I don't know.
1:00:55That's the reason why I think maybe he may not go on.
1:00:58Because whatever happens, by the way,
1:01:02unless he just doesn't care he ain't gonna get the vote so now he's not that he's not that kind of an idealist he's out there because he wants to stir up the crowds to make the money he found out about any of that but one of the things I wish for this attorney to say to him is why?
1:01:20because of Aaron?
1:01:24yeah because he has fright in his soul that's why he
1:01:30We often said, you know, I hate to see the church tonight.
1:01:34Excellent.
1:01:35We have an idea.
1:01:35I just ordered Joe Conley, and I directed it.
1:01:39He called the little bastard while he was in my office.
1:01:46Conley was bringing it.
1:01:47Huh?
1:01:47Yeah, do they have the food, please?
1:01:49Yes, sir.
1:01:49We have it.
1:01:51Thank you.
1:01:51Thank you.
1:01:53Just for... What do you have?
1:01:55Oh, we have our ham.
1:01:56Ham, I think.
1:01:57Ham.
1:01:57For how many?
1:01:58Oh, for two, sir.
1:03:12Oh, you've got two, you've got enough for three, or just two?
1:03:32Two, but I can get one right where the other one's at.
1:03:36Wow.
1:04:00He's in great spirit.
1:04:29You've got to end this right.
1:04:30You know, that's the whole question.
1:04:32What's the story about the three teenagers?
1:04:35He knows we've got the right thing for all of them.
1:04:42And he's great that you've graduated.
1:04:45Who haven't I seen?
1:04:46You've seen him first.
1:04:51I've seen him in my office.
1:04:56and we'll go off and we'll go off and we'll go off and we'll go off and we'll go off and we'll go off and we'll go off and we'll go off and we'll go off
1:05:25The other thing is, how are we going to do that?
1:05:43The Secret Service has no knowledge of three teenagers at all, can't figure out what the hell they're talking about.
1:05:50They've got another place for him.
1:05:52Yes, sir.
1:05:53This is a guy by the name of Arthur Bremer from West Michigan Street, Milwaukee.
1:05:59He has a previous arrest on November 71 for carrying a gun in Milwaukee.
1:06:02They're interviewing him now.
1:06:05Secret Service, FBI, and Prince George's police.
1:06:08They had to treat him for an injury because he had a severe head wound because a Secret Service agent hit him over the head with a gun.
1:06:19And they've taken him out.
1:06:21Now they're interviewing him.
1:06:23CBS had a, they had not released his name or identity to the press.
1:06:27CBS had a picture of him.
1:06:29They picked him up in the crowd.
1:06:3115 to 35 years old.
1:06:33Something around 30 to 35.
1:06:34There is God damn it.
1:06:35The attorney's job is to know the God damn thing about him.
1:06:40Now, the Secret Service is reporting that there was a
1:06:52Okay, they say that the assailant is Arthur Brampton.
1:06:55There was no walking by that previous rehearsal.
1:06:58They had a good regard for that.
1:07:00It's coming from there.
1:07:01We're doing it now.
1:07:03I'm scared of the police.
1:07:06Again, he'd be treated for a head wound first because the Secret Service ain't going to get him on the bed.
1:07:14And now they're going to get him on the bed.
1:07:19They say they've set up adequate...
1:07:49If we haven't heard the damn thing, let's show them.
1:07:54For the record, for the record.
1:07:56Okay.
1:07:57Okay.
1:07:58Okay.
1:08:20That's all right.
1:08:21Yeah.
1:08:21Yeah.
1:08:21Okay.
1:08:21Yeah.
1:08:21Okay.
1:08:21Okay, good.
1:08:22Good.
1:08:50Yeah, I'll see you in a minute.
1:09:04Okay.
1:09:06Well, that's one report that we just didn't have on the working level in Europe.
1:09:21I'll bet you we'll find out.
1:09:23We cannot let the Bureau.
1:09:25And, look here, it's 7.20.
1:09:27I'll bet you shot four or three hours ago.
1:09:30We don't know 8.00.
1:09:31I'll bet you.
1:09:33I don't know.
1:09:35I don't know a damn thing.
1:09:36I don't know why the Bureau would have any hesitancy at all just getting ready to do that.
1:09:45We've got to, we've got to, it's a legal basis.
1:09:48Right.
1:09:49Clindy's just very unsatisfactory.
1:09:51Well, we've got a strategy, but I suppose that wasn't the problem.
1:09:59Well, Kleenex doesn't have any knowledge, but the Bureau does, fortunately.
1:10:04He got away with Gray, or was Gray off to vacation?
1:10:07No, well, he's on his way back from Connecticut, but he talked to Bell, and they have a crew over there, have had a crew over there for some time.
1:10:20Do they know they can report to me here directly on the phone?
1:10:22That's the thing I want them to know, that I am watching it every hour on the hour.
1:10:27You get ahold of Gray and tell him I want him to report to me everything he knows.
1:10:33John, what the president would like to do, and I guess what else we could do, is to have a periodic report that he's done every 15 minutes directly to him.
1:10:43I've got a bell calling to just give him a periodic report.
1:10:47It says every 15 minutes, right?
1:10:49Whenever they have something.
1:10:51But certainly if we have problems, we don't want to read it in the paper.
1:10:56There's John on top of it.
1:11:00Mr. Bell from the FBI will be calling the president from time to time this evening.
1:11:05You should put the call to him.
1:11:09Thank you.
1:13:47He's been spending too much time reading the New York Times again, I think.
1:13:56He's got four kills, busing, and abortion.
1:13:59Three interests, I think, in exactly the opposite of the other five.
1:14:04I don't either.
1:14:11I think he does.
1:14:12You know, he gets more likes.
1:14:13You know, basically, Rockefeller gets conservative on foreign policy, but he has liberal and conservative policies.
1:14:19He's got people around him that are liberal as hell.
1:14:22He gets conservative near the election time, because I think he reads the polls for him.
1:14:29Basically, he has people around him.
1:14:31He goes out to Manhattan with the goddamn establishment press and
1:14:39i said i've just checked my schedule 75 for all the appointments that i've had and all the meetings i've attended and been present with the businessman and i said yes
1:15:06The crime came on this decision.
1:15:07I received three telegrams.
1:15:09One from you now.
1:15:12One from us beyond.
1:15:14The other one I can't remember.
1:15:18And I received universal support from labor, except it wasn't mine.
1:15:25Well, where the hell were they?
1:15:28It shook the hell out of me.
1:15:30Pete, of course, is not a very strong man now, I'm sorry to say.
1:15:34He wouldn't stand up, you know, for Christ's sake, he wouldn't.
1:15:37Did you understand it?
1:15:39But Pete's got the little man, he runs with his fucking crowd.
1:15:41He doesn't understand toughness and strength because he grew up in a liberal atmosphere.
1:15:49He wants to be, he wants to be, but Pete, you know, he skis with them and asks them and runs around with them to other places.
1:15:57Good God, when do they realize it?
1:15:58The businessmen are part of the establishment.
1:16:01They're part of, and they're no worse, meaning they're worse, because they know better.
1:16:07The professor, you can't blame.
1:16:08The college professor, you know, the college doesn't care.
1:16:10But the businessman knows better.
1:16:12Not that Pete is buying on the issue, but he said, Christ, you should have gone to the business council.
1:16:19All he does is, I said, how many times have I been to the business council?
1:16:24I've done it.
1:16:25Eight times at the men's president.
1:16:27And they have never supported me once on anything.
1:16:30Never.
1:16:31And everybody in the staff except I was opposed to going this time.
1:16:35Why?
1:16:36Because they don't support me.
1:16:39We've got to understand.
1:16:40Poor Kendall, you know.
1:16:41I said, now Don, let me tell you an interesting thing.
1:16:43It shook him.
1:16:44It really got to his heart.
1:16:46Why are you married to me?
1:16:48He said, because he would recommend me.
1:16:51I said, that's right.
1:16:52You wouldn't be a married man.
1:16:56They don't respect you.
1:16:58if you came up the hard way.
1:17:00Well, let me tell you somebody else.
1:17:02I said, let me tell you about a couple of guys you know that the business council wouldn't expect.
1:17:11There's a fellow named Walt Cage.
1:17:13He's not a very rich man, but he's got $60 million in cash.
1:17:17See, there isn't a member of the business council who has as much as Cage, and none of them will give more.
1:17:22There are five and ten, five and ten.
1:17:24They're the rulers.
1:17:26Let me tell you about another guy.
1:17:28These were $150 million in cash.
1:17:30There is nobody in the business council in England, won't you say?
1:17:35They shook Don, because he'd been down there, and he'd been romancing his son's place in the business council.
1:17:44And also, it was good to hear Pete here.
1:17:47Pete has grown up with all these people, but the silver spoon was gone.
1:17:51But he's never had to work his ass off.
1:17:54Not ever.
1:17:55Not ever.
1:17:55And he had no guts and no strength, except, you know what I mean, he had to go through IT&D, which then they're destroyed.
1:18:03Why?
1:18:05Not because he's a weak man.
1:18:06It's because he was growing up in a weak environment.
1:18:09And I am getting sick of these people, Bob.
1:18:11Kendall came in and said, he said, nobody's told me how much time I have.
1:18:17Well, Christ, I thought I had.
1:18:20So he took 80, I mean,
1:18:2355 minutes and I had it finally drawn out.
1:18:27He really said nobody told me.
1:18:28He said nobody told me how much time I had.
1:18:31And I said, man, I hear Pete sitting there.
1:18:33God damn it, that's Pete's job.
1:18:37You know, Mr. Bristol, they're not businessmen.
1:18:39They're professional managerial clients.
1:18:41I told Don, that built him up.
1:18:43I said, Don, you started as a...
1:18:46guy running a little truck and i said you did a hell of a job and he had don kendall's a hell of a phone he's definitely strong etc but let me say i have no respect for for nelson rockefeller's brother david i have no respect for the whole god damn crowd in the business council they shared bill rogers like because bill rogers talked about peace peace
1:19:15What this is about is war and winning a war.
1:19:20And I don't know why we can't get it across to some of our staff.
1:19:25God damn it.
1:19:26This is not a soft line of administration.
1:19:28Does anybody understand me?
1:19:35Huh?
1:19:35Yeah.
1:19:38I know they're also here running around, crapping around, saying, Jesus Christ, isn't this horrible?
1:19:44No, sir.
1:19:45No, Schultz said, and I saw it, noticed he was all right.
1:19:50Schultz was great.
1:19:51I saw it.
1:19:52He was out there wrestling.
1:19:54On the first second, Schultz was the one who said, let me call George Meany and set him up for Henry Kissinger.
1:20:01And Henry Kissinger called and set him up for you.
1:20:04You called him in Georgia, and he came out.
1:20:07He said, well, you arrested me.
1:20:08You got arrested on a daily basis.
1:20:09Did Simmons do all right, Pitts and all the rest?
1:20:13Brennan, they could have all got Brennan.
1:20:15Brennan's boys were fixing it up with the protesters and passing out, so I didn't get arrested.
1:20:20One of them, two of them, spent the night in jail.
1:20:23You didn't get arrested.
1:20:24Yeah, but they had some money.
1:20:27They did.
1:20:27That's why they were arrested.
1:20:28You know, the Wallace thing will stir up the heartache, won't it?
1:20:32But the other thing is that
1:20:33You'll never persuade the hardheads that this isn't part of the county's plot.
1:20:41Otherwise, it is.
1:20:43I think it is.
1:20:44Well, we've got to strengthen our own staff and kind of harden some of these groups and take the research back.
1:21:00Well, I agree.
1:21:01When I signed the little thing with Christ in the present, I had to do it a hundred times.
1:21:07I said, God damn, we could have done better than that.
1:21:13Crackles, sapphire, and the priest all around.
1:21:16Jesus Christ, they got a real, real battle to the finish with the enemy.
1:21:22The communists and the enemy.
1:21:24The press are the enemy.
1:21:25Great Christ doesn't understand.
1:21:27The press are the enemy.
1:21:29Zipper doesn't understand it.
1:21:30Oh, yeah.
1:21:31Zipper.
1:21:32Well, maybe.
1:21:33Where's Sapphire?
1:21:35Sapphire kind of does that.
1:21:36Climb?
1:21:38No.
1:21:38But Sapphire's view is they're the enemy, but the way you, because they're an ever-present enemy, that you can't...
1:21:45You know, his is the rocket attitude.
1:21:48Suck around and kiss their ass.
1:21:50Suck their cocks.
1:21:51No way.
1:21:52It ain't gonna be that way with me.
1:21:54I ain't got nothing to do with it.
1:21:57What do you think, Chuck?
1:21:58You agree or not?
1:21:59Oh, I agree that, yeah, I agree with that.
1:22:01You destroy it every chance you have.
1:22:04In a way, she helped him destroy himself in many.
1:22:08Remember this, I don't know whether you've got the wrong credit, but the point is, be sure you've got all the memos I sent it in, and follow up, ruthlessly, toughly.
1:22:20Don't take the climate that destroyed us in 1960 and 1962, and frankly, there wasn't power number 58.
1:22:30The press is the enemy, period.
1:22:33Do we all understand that?
1:22:46I sure do.
1:22:47Alan Curry should not do...
1:22:48He's got to do the book.
1:22:50He's got to do it in this book.
1:22:55He's a real estate agent.
1:22:57A book like this.
1:22:58A book's going to take too long.
1:22:59I think we've got to think of a good article.
1:23:01We can do both, but I think the article we can get in.
1:23:03Yeah.
1:23:03Send him out with it.
1:23:04Send him out with it.
1:23:05Oh.
1:23:05Right in.
1:23:06He's agreed to do it with Roche.
1:23:10Yeah.
1:23:11I don't know what's going on.
1:23:19Right.
1:23:19And what other do you follow?
1:23:20We follow two more.
1:23:21OK. OK.
1:23:50I'm sorry, I better run.
1:23:52Yes, right away.
1:24:02Perfect.
1:24:03All right.
1:24:20Chuck, I have sat here for three and a half hours since a man was shot.
1:24:29And I haven't heard one goddamn word about the man shot.
1:24:34Now, this is a terrible affront to be inclined to each other.
1:24:39Well, we can't do it because of this.
1:24:42And Pat Gray is all fucking around up in Pennsylvania or Connecticut.
1:24:47We've got to have more control of this thing.
1:24:51By the end of the night, we're going to be goddamn guilty of not following up with George Walsh's assassination.
1:25:00What do you think?
1:25:01I think that's very important.
1:25:03Rob, the other thing.
1:25:05Tom, you're calling for the president.
1:25:09get a hold of Luke Cash and say, I want an immediate report on his physical condition.
1:25:14And get up in front of him and get off his fat ass and report it immediately.
1:25:25I don't want any crap.
1:25:28Okay?
1:25:29You know, don't worry about the prosecution.
1:25:30What they do worry about now is the identity of the people and the way the press is handled, so this doesn't come from them.
1:25:37I was another telemarketer.
1:25:38Very bad at the time.
1:25:39Very bad.
1:25:41It looks like we don't know a goddamn thing, and we've got to get going.
1:25:47All press.
1:25:48Screwed up again.
1:25:52No, he says he's got them all.
1:25:53He insists there are two other people.
1:25:59Well, apparently he does.
1:26:02They've got two in jail, plus the one in the hospital.
1:26:04And the two in jail were involved.
1:26:07He said, the justice guys in the jail were also involved.
1:26:11Is he conservative?
1:26:12They didn't shoot them.
1:26:13Well, I don't know.
1:26:16So what?
1:26:16What the hell did he have to do?
1:26:18What the hell is Piney to do about acquiescing?
1:26:21Well...
1:26:21You can't do that because they're illegal.
1:26:23Well, somebody else will get caught.
1:26:25No, he's got a problem.
1:26:26Because they are in the custody of the Maryland police, what he's trying to do is keep anybody from getting to them and get them secluded, get them protected, and get charges against them, which they've got.
1:26:39U.S. attorneys have got charges.
1:26:40They're solid.
1:26:42And then he's got to turn over.
1:26:44He's got to work with the police to get his agents out of the hospital and jail to seclude him.
1:26:51The Kennedy thing was scripted.
1:27:17because nobody's really worked on it.
1:27:20It's three and a half hours, and I haven't learned a goddamn thing, and I'm supposed to be the man in charge.
1:27:26I don't know a damn thing.
1:27:28I don't even know what the poor goddamn Wallace is alive or not, do we?
1:27:33Well, he was.
1:27:34Well, that's a half hour.
1:27:35Don't get right over it any time soon.
1:27:38Now, look, we really got to get a hold of him.
1:27:39He's the early man in charge.
1:27:41I'm going to talk to this person now, because he knows about the findings of the program.
1:28:00I hope you really think Roger's next.
1:28:03I mean, I can't do it this week.
1:28:12I'm so busy.
1:28:13We've got an arena.
1:28:15We've just had a big break.
1:28:19Don can't be so recorded.
1:28:22We've had hundreds of calls.
1:28:24Scores of calls.
1:28:25What do you do then?
1:28:28I ain't gonna call him.
1:28:30Okay, will you handle it?
1:28:31Well, I agree.
1:28:32You'll have the time, but I don't have the time to call Rogers to tell him he's a great young businessman, which I'm sure he did.
1:28:40Thank you for the recall, Stuart.
1:28:43Right.
1:28:44Our problem with Rogers is the question of his going to Poland.
1:28:47He is absolutely dead determined that he has got to go to Poland.
1:28:53And so I guess we... Ah, yeah, go.
1:28:55It's an attempt about that thing.
1:28:56So, again, I...
1:29:01I just couldn't understand it.
1:29:04And he's going all around, well, we're going to get another flat if I'm not there.
1:29:10And I said, well, you don't seem to worry about not being in Iraq.
1:29:13And he said, well, all is different.
1:29:19He doesn't want to be in a row.
1:29:20I'll send him to Poland.
1:29:21So I guess we've got to, for Christ's sake, he isn't going to be on this plane.
1:29:26He isn't going to see me, period.
1:29:27Because, God damn it, I'm sick of this bullshit.
1:29:30I'm really sick of it.
1:29:31I'm sick of the Kendall thing today.
1:29:35Bob Pete is not a strong enough man for that job.
1:29:37He's a sweet guy, a nice guy, and at times, very often, when he gets strong, he gets in trouble.
1:29:45He doesn't have the soul.
1:29:47He doesn't have it.
1:29:52It seems to me that we are running into a very great problem here.
1:30:05I've been here for four hours.
1:30:07I haven't had any report with regard to this condition.
1:30:15And my niece said it was a 32-year-old man, and I now understand that it was a 32-year-old man.
1:30:22I already don't know.
1:30:23Nobody is questioning it.
1:30:24Nobody is there.
1:30:25I'm simply going to surround the jailer and be sure he doesn't get shot and arrested.
1:30:31Now, John, this is being handled in a terrible way.
1:30:34You've got to get competent.
1:30:36I'm ordering you to get competent right away.
1:30:39And my niece, don't let that goddamn rally have any of your doings.
1:30:44And Pat Gray is on an airplane.
1:30:46He's been up in Connecticut and all, you know, up in his beach or whatever the Christ he goes to.
1:30:51He came out of it.
1:30:52But we have got to get a hold of this thing.
1:30:54Do you understand?
1:30:56The record is being made now.
1:30:58You may not understand.
1:31:00Did you ever read the file of the Kenzie thing?
1:31:03I mean, it's the three hours afterwards, and we haven't done a goddamn thing, but I'm sitting here waiting, and I don't know anything.
1:31:11Do you?
1:31:13What do you know?
1:31:15You see that one is deeper, I think.
1:31:20Yeah.
1:31:27All right, so what I mean, I don't want his safety, I want to get his.
1:31:40Yeah.
1:31:40Great.
1:31:45John, you stay, you stay right on them because, right, right, I want you to do it because if I'm not here, you do it, but keep the heat on them because don't let us make the mistake that we made at the Kennedy Center.
1:31:58And the, you know, that's not good, it's not necessary.
1:32:04You don't realize the force of this, because that loose is trying to be strong.
1:32:10This fellow is a goddamn demagogue, a hate-monger,
1:32:14to met those horrible horses, and we have got to be doing the right thing, John.
1:32:17That's what you've got to understand.
1:32:20I know the New York Times will understand this.
1:32:22Your staff will understand this.
1:32:23The six lawyers have resigned from the Justice Department.
1:32:27The back that we appointed will understand it.
1:32:29But for Christ's sake, let's understand it.
1:32:31Okay.
1:32:33All right.
1:32:35That's, of course, the other side of it.
1:32:38The Wallace followers are going to expect us to have...
1:32:42federal agents all over this country tonight to track this down.
1:32:46They're going to want revenge on whoever did this.
1:32:48Which is another reason for us to be pushing Gandhi and Hart.
1:32:53It's too bad, you know, that bureau, Mr. President, the bureau's a mess.
1:33:01It became a one-man show in Hoover.
1:33:03Now we ain't got anybody.
1:33:04We've got poor Gray up in a fucking airplane.
1:33:07Oh, Christ.
1:33:09Well, it's not his fault.
1:33:10I know, Cindy.
1:33:13On the ground, fighting this out.
1:33:16That's what made good.
1:33:17He was out whenever the action was.
1:33:19Yeah, he was there himself with the machine guns.
1:33:24Well, they're getting great.
1:33:25I think once he gets on it, he'll start tracking us from his background.
1:33:30We know where he's from.
1:33:32Wisconsin.
1:33:36He's 22 years old.
1:33:37I just had one of my fellows check the University of Wisconsin.
1:33:41He's not from there.
1:33:42I'm really crazy.
1:33:44I'm only 22 years old.
1:33:44Well, he must be one of these goddamn new directors.
1:33:49And let's get that out.
1:33:50Let's get out the idea to get the word Vietnam.
1:33:53Sure.
1:33:53Absolutely.
1:33:55Call somebody and tell them, I want to know what it feels like to work in Vietnam.
1:33:59Now, tell them early that that question must be asked, and I direct it.
1:34:05I direct him.
1:34:06I direct that he must find out what he thinks about the war in Vietnam.
1:34:10And I want that within 15 minutes.
1:34:11Ask the son of a bitch.
1:34:13Let me know from the other journalists, please.
1:34:18They won't do it, Chip.
1:34:19They have no goddamn brains.
1:34:21None of them.
1:34:21Yes.
1:34:29Yes.
1:34:32Oh, yes.
1:34:33Yes.
1:34:35Okay.
1:34:37Okay.
1:34:40No license.
1:34:41I get you.
1:34:45I get you.
1:34:46Thanks.
1:34:46It's gone.
1:34:47Now, Bob, let's talk to him on this one.
1:34:52I'm going to check right now.
1:34:53I think that's a car.
1:34:55It is.

Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on George Wallace and Assassination attempt

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 15, 1972

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