Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 433-028
Date: Tuesday, May 1, 1973 at 5:19 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/433-028

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Yeah, I'm telling him that this is convenient.
[0:19] That's right.
[0:20] I'll put him on a Thursday discussion.
[0:24] I'll put it on so it's open.
[0:29] So that, uh, you have, uh, Senator Bruce at 10 o'clock.
[0:34] An hour should be enough.
[0:37] Half hour.
[0:38] Bruce, half hour.
[0:40] Bruce is at 10 o'clock.
[0:41] We'll put Ash on for 9 o'clock.
[0:45] Good.
[0:45] And I assume you want Ken Cole to sit in there?
[0:54] No.
[0:54] Okay, Cole should be with him now.
[1:00] I mean, I understand this is a budget trade, on the matter of this and that.
[1:17] I can't describe the amount of condonability.
[1:20] Oh, well, if he wants to bid, fine, fine, all right, sir.
[1:21] If he's making a departure tonight, he's going to be out of the stand the first day.
[1:23] He'll be gone.
[1:23] He'll not be gone.
[1:24] He'll be gone.
[1:24] Oh, yeah, sure, the whole family.
[1:25] All the family, all right, sir.
[1:25] Would you like Rose to go or anyone else?
[1:26] Or are you going to go to the office?
[1:27] No, I'll go.
[1:32] I'd like to go.
[1:33] I don't plan any work at all this time.
[1:38] I'd say that, really, the President says if she'd like to go, we'd be delighted to have her, but that, I mean, you know, maybe she'd like to take Claudia down or something.
[1:49] She'd like to go and take Claudia down with her.
[1:51] We, you know what I mean?
[1:51] It's not something where I want her to feel she has to, she's going to work, and frankly, I'm not going to be able to entertain her.
[1:57] So when I say roads and presences, if you want to take off three or four days, this might be a nice thing for you to take a body of down and go.
[2:15] It goes without saying, you all know what you're going to get about this time off.
[2:18] I'm asking you to go to any crazy events or anything.
[2:20] It's going to come out all right.
[2:20] I've got the vice president on a bit of notice.
[2:21] Get him off his ass and start doing a little work.
[2:22] Poor guy doesn't do something that dumb when he talks to people.
[2:25] He doesn't realize how the press will distort anything he said, you know, and gets out there that he thinks the Watergate's a terrible thing and all that kind of stuff.
[2:42] Well, he should have spoken up when he had the opportunity.
[2:44] And a cabinet meeting.
[2:45] A cabinet meeting.
[2:46] Speaking at the meeting, listening.
[2:47] I don't know.
[2:48] See, I think he was in public forum the last couple of days.
[2:49] He's never said a word.
[2:50] Well, I gave it to him the day before.
[2:53] I don't think there was much he could have said.
[3:04] He should have just left Rutgers and put a little in Armstrong and Bush.
[3:10] Where the hell was he?
[3:11] It was a good lesson to him.
[3:12] And a good lesson to him.
[3:14] But we're going to give a few lessons around here now.
[3:19] The shop, I think, needs a little of that.
[3:20] What do you think?
[3:22] somebody they thought that fbi i was so shocked i just
[3:53] and was enraged.
[3:55] I don't know how that word got out.
[4:02] Perhaps someone saw it.
[4:03] I don't know how the press would have seen it.
[4:08] I'm going to go down and see Henry here.
[4:17] He's a good, loyal staff.
[4:21] But it isn't just a matter of fear that I don't save this for your benefit.
[4:37] There's an echo on the one to you.
[4:40] Why do you think they're leaving now, then?
[4:41] I don't think we have got...
[4:42] There's some people down in the depths around here who may have access to the information.
[4:45] Some are older than other people, maybe not even related to the White House, standing facing the building houses, all sorts of oddballs, some of these NSC people.
[4:49] This is just my opinion.
[4:50] NSC?
[4:50] Well, I mean, just, you know...
[4:51] I couldn't put a finger in any of it, but I'd say the characters come over to the State Department and question who's side they're on, and who knows who's in this building, too.
[5:10] I don't know if there's any information at times.
[5:11] I said, you buy them on, of course.
[5:11] The one who's asking you to do the jacking, I said, buy someone on.
[5:13] I said, who's that?
[5:14] It's a hero.
[5:14] But essentially, I think you've got a very good one.
[5:15] Oh, I know we have.
[5:16] I think they're great.
[5:17] I like them all.
[5:17] We just have to take them to the shipper.
[5:18] You've got to work well with Ewan.
[5:19] Ewan Rhodes and...
[5:20] I'm going to work on scheduling the calls and the letters that I see and try to keep the crap out.
[5:32] In addition, I see my own function being sort of a bridge to the east wing, if you want to call it that.
[5:39] Yeah, you have a bridge to the east wing, because I see some rows and parts that are going to be sort of in the hole for a moment, so that everything doesn't come into my office.
[5:45] That's the reason I want to see A, because I've got to have A to keep it from dropping out.
[5:49] that we have a good basic structure and a good understanding of how you want to work, and most people do, in the gallery slides.
[6:07] A lot of this has been here during the formal stages, during the first term of administration, because we had a familiarity with how to make this model work, and how best to serve you, and bundle it in through establishing how, in which we've had a change of names, some of the people that we'll establish are going to be able to work effectively with these people.
[6:15] He's got a good handle on things.
[6:41] Maybe he's going to move along a little bit.
[6:41] We have a question from Twitter.
[6:42] Hey, Dave.
[6:43] I don't think he's involved in any illegal way anymore than Bob is, but you know what I mean?
[6:53] If anybody, if there's anything that maybe he saw these papers on why he's going to have to leave, I mean, he knows that.
[7:02] I hope not.
[7:02] I hope not.
[7:03] But he killed us.
[7:04] He's got a good shot.
[7:05] I don't know.
[7:08] He got a job.
[7:14] It's him that I think is starting to, now that he's been given the obligation to go ahead and move out, he can and will do the job.
[7:27] Yeah.
[7:27] Oh, wow.
[7:27] Yeah, I think everybody has to go through these.
[7:28] We all go through these periods.
[7:31] We have more than our share.
[7:33] They're rugged, not some, because Bailey affected people that I have such great affection for, Bob and John.
[7:53] So, it's a rough, rough time.
[7:54] I think, I think we're gonna have a couple more stormy seas, but oh sure, there'll be, there'll be crap along the way.
[7:58] Last time, I think there were all of us that, yeah, low-level people had, had, uh,
[8:01] I think he's a group.
[8:05] They're guys like Dick Howard.
[8:08] You may not know him, but he's a strong individual.
[8:16] He'll go around and kick some of your ass.
[8:18] I hope for Christ he did.
[8:19] No, he's clean.
[8:23] Colson would be clean.
[8:25] He should.
[8:25] Colson didn't have you involved.
[8:26] That's my answer.
[8:26] I think that should be Colson.
[8:27] If Howard had been involved in any of this stuff, I think if Howard had been involved in any of this stuff, it would have gone right.
[8:34] Well, I don't know.
[8:59] Oh, for God's sake.
[9:00] I don't know.
[9:00] I don't know.
[9:00] I don't know.
[9:00] I don't know.
[9:01] I don't know.
[9:14] Thank you.