Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 433 › Conversation 433-041

Nixon & Ziegler on White House staffing and Press relations

Tuesday, May 1, 1973 · 6:29 PM–6:32 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; [Unknown person(s)]Conversation433-041 on Tape 433StartTuesday, May 1, 1973 at 6:29 PMEndTuesday, May 1, 1973 at 6:32 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 433-041 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler met to coordinate messaging ahead of Ziegler’s upcoming press briefing and an American Society of Newspaper Editors event. They discussed the status of various White House staff roles, including the permanent and interim appointments of Leonard Garment and Kenneth Cole, as well as the potential replacement for H.R. Haldeman. Additionally, they addressed a sensitive leak involving FBI agents being stationed outside White House offices, reflecting the President's heightened suspicion regarding internal security.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
I'm sorry.
Oh, yeah, come on in.
Mr. President, I, uh...
Sorry, if you don't need anything more than that, I thought I'd leave you.
Of course, of course, you should.
Well, no, I mean, I wanted to hear...
I thought you'd done it anyway, no?
No, but I didn't want to just care about it.
And I'll say it if you... No, you've got to go to the S&E anyway tonight, don't you?
That's fine.
No, no.
A couple of things at the beginning.
Did Scott say something today about Rumsfeld?
There's a big Rumsfeld push coming around.
I never, not to me, because I'm shooting that down.
It's ridiculous.
The other point I'm making in terms of the cabinet meeting, and I want to make sure that I understand that, is that you referred to interim steps in the cabinet room as to how things are going to work.
The interim steps.
I want to pull people away from the fact that you announced in the cabinet
But then you said this does not say how the White House staff would be structured.
That's correct.
But I don't want to leave too much uncertainty because Garmin is interim.
Coal is permanent.
I've made that point on the background.
And as far as the haul of it is concerned, I'm not sure.
I may not even replace it at all.
See, what I said in the briefing is that the President has not made a decision just now.
Yeah, tell him one second.
I'll have to tell him.
I assume that's a position for him.
That's right.
But I didn't want him to know that the government's going forward.
That's the point I'm making.
He's in good shape.
I'm making that point, but people were starting to vote with a story that the president announced today, and I can't remember if this was actually structured.
I said, no, it's an interim step as to how they do it.
And then I went to them.
And you found out who leaked the story?
The FBI, I think.
I think what happened is people
I was convinced it wasn't her.
I don't know, I'm just so goddamn suspicious now.
I hope I didn't have that wrong, but I tried to put it in the right perspective.
Well, you can see why I was so angry.
Yes, sir.
I just couldn't.
But actually, the cop knocked in front of Bob Holland's door.
Right.
In front of the bench.
Okay.
All right.
I think that's all I had to cover.
No, that's all.
Yes, sir.

NARA Description

On May 1, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:29 pm to 6:32 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 433-041 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 433-41

Date: May 1, 1973
Time: 6:29 pm - 6:32 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

     Ziegler’s schedule
           -American Society of Newspaper Editors [ASNE] event

     Ziegler’s press briefing
           -Donald H. Rumsfeld
                 -Hugh Scott’s statement
           -President’s previous Cabinet meeting
                 -White House staff
                        -Roy L. Ash
                        -Leonard Garment
                        -Kenneth R. Cole
                        -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 6:29 pm.

     President’s schedule
           -Ash’s arrival

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 6:32 pm.

     Ziegler’s press briefing
           -White House staff
                                              -25-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

            -President’s previous Cabinet meeting

      Leak regarding Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] agents outside offices
           -Garment
           -President’s reaction
                 -Haldeman

Ziegler left at 6:32 pm.

Also recorded on May 1, 1973

  • 045-103 6:24 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at 6:24 pm.
  • 045-104 6:24 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:24 pm and 6:27 pm.
  • 433-039 6:24 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 6:24 pm.
  • 433-040 6:24 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:24 pm and 6:27 pm.
  • 045-105 6:27 PM · 13 sec — White House operator and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:27 pm and 6:44 pm.
  • 433-042 6:32 PM · 12 sec — White House operator and President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 6:32 pm.
  • 433-043 6:33 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon, unknown person(s), and Roy L. Ash met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:33 pm and 6:45 pm.
  • 045-106 6:44 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Robert H. Finch talked on the telephone from 6:44 pm to 6:47 pm.

All 181 conversations from May 1, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 433-041, May 1, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/433-041 (accessed October 5, 2026).