Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 433-041
Date: Tuesday, May 1, 1973 at 6:29 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; [Unknown person(s)]
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/433-041

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] I'm sorry.
[0:02] Oh, yeah, come on in.
[0:07] Mr. President, I, uh...
[0:08] Sorry, if you don't need anything more than that, I thought I'd leave you.
[0:15] Of course, of course, you should.
[0:17] Well, no, I mean, I wanted to hear...
[0:18] I thought you'd done it anyway, no?
[0:21] No, but I didn't want to just care about it.
[0:23] And I'll say it if you... No, you've got to go to the S&E anyway tonight, don't you?
[0:28] That's fine.
[0:29] No, no.
[0:30] A couple of things at the beginning.
[0:31] Did Scott say something today about Rumsfeld?
[0:34] There's a big Rumsfeld push coming around.
[0:37] I never, not to me, because I'm shooting that down.
[0:40] It's ridiculous.
[0:42] 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.
[0:54] The interim steps.
[0:56] I want to pull people away from the fact that you announced in the cabinet
[1:08] But then you said this does not say how the White House staff would be structured.
[1:13] That's correct.
[1:13] But I don't want to leave too much uncertainty because Garmin is interim.
[1:18] Coal is permanent.
[1:21] I've made that point on the background.
[1:23] And as far as the haul of it is concerned, I'm not sure.
[1:25] I may not even replace it at all.
[1:27] See, what I said in the briefing is that the President has not made a decision just now.
[1:35] Yeah, tell him one second.
[1:36] I'll have to tell him.
[1:42] I assume that's a position for him.
[1:44] That's right.
[1:45] But I didn't want him to know that the government's going forward.
[1:47] That's the point I'm making.
[1:48] He's in good shape.
[1:50] 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.
[2:01] I said, no, it's an interim step as to how they do it.
[2:03] And then I went to them.
[2:04] And you found out who leaked the story?
[2:05] The FBI, I think.
[2:08] I think what happened is people
[2:10] I was convinced it wasn't her.
[2:15] I don't know, I'm just so goddamn suspicious now.
[2:20] I hope I didn't have that wrong, but I tried to put it in the right perspective.
[2:23] Well, you can see why I was so angry.
[2:24] Yes, sir.
[2:25] I just couldn't.
[2:28] But actually, the cop knocked in front of Bob Holland's door.
[2:32] Right.
[2:32] In front of the bench.
[2:35] Okay.
[2:37] All right.
[2:37] I think that's all I had to cover.
[2:40] No, that's all.
[2:41] Yes, sir.