Nixon & Ziegler on Watergate and White House press relations

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 12 minutes of this recording (about 43% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

We needed quite an hour to get up.

Huh?

Where did they go?

The party?

No.

They moved away.

We did a little different thing.

We walked out straight away.

We were there for an hour and a half.

No.

I'm sorry.

I got the word.

They were just there.

Okay.

I don't know.

I wonder.

I'm sorry.

But I was trying to just reuse it.

But they were confused.

I mean, you know, it's not hard.

It's not a, you know, very sophisticated development.

I mean, what the hell, the man who said there, he said, well, it's not 45 minutes.

He said, well, there are different days that you have to live your life like a wild animal.

Yeah, the day that you're refused.

How does it feel today?

Do you like it?

Do you prefer something else?

I don't know.

The thing where

And they're focused on national security.

They told me that Scott, those are going great today.

Scott got a, I told him, he's the best he's ever done.

I gave him a lot.

I said, I'm going to use this.

I'm going to see how they have to do it.

That's clearly in the state.

I want to get this thing out of the air.

I want to keep it out.

And, uh, uh, he made it to the ferry, but he thought he might be able to tell us.

He looked the fuck over that stuff.

He looked down and he thought, fuck, I've got to make sure he's not free.

Uh, and Scott didn't stop him.

He looked at him and said, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,

Well, basically, did I order a cover-up from the CIA?

No, today we're basically moving to additional details, but then the framework of the statement.

At what, did the president at some point, between the time he spoke to the CIA?

Well, when was he told there wasn't a cover-up?

I was told, I said, I said, I said, I said,

We cannot approach a situation where questions are being asked

based upon the fact that at one time, the president had everything in his mind, and therefore put down, calculated exactly what he was told.

I said, the example of this is that you go back to the time after the break-in.

I said, there were many staff discussions about the individual reports.

which led the president, as he stated, to conclude that there was a possibility of CIA involvement.

And I said, that is why he and me were fighting so hard not to get the CIA in the ballot.

And I said, you can examine your own lives over the last year.

Can you recall any specific dates, hours, events that took place?

And I said, look, it's free.

There were periods that

They didn't say a mention.

They said, I can't.

I can't.

It was that type of thing more than anything.

They wanted us to go over and spend time.

It's the thing that helps us the most.

It's not giving up.

Scott made a great point about the strength of the country, the strength that we made in this conversation with Senator Baskin last night, and the President's firm, you know, intention and so forth.

We've got to focus on Kissinger, though, and on its return and so forth.

And it has to be done.

All the questions have to be done.

.

Any specific detail on the crew?

They got into a little bit of a question about when you were aware of the burglary and the break-in.

The break-in?

No, the one I read in the newspaper.

The break-in?

About the psychiatrist.

Oh, sure.

I went to where that was.

And I said, not until after the investigation.

I've seen it.

And I said...

Also, you have to keep in mind that as these events became known to the president during the course of his investigation, we cannot draw the assumption that everything about one event became known to him all at once, and that there was not an assessment or evaluation.

Was it true?

I mean, somebody told me this amazing thing on the radio.

They said, I'm not sure if they really came up with the very thing.

It might have been March.

But I'm sure it may have been so much.

But it could not be more much.

I was not aware of it at the time.

So I was not aware of it until 1972.

And then Lynn would be there from time to time and say, look, what is the more basic question about assumptions and all this stuff?

Well, you have a rough order to look at.

I suggest something.

I wouldn't breathe tomorrow, even if it was tomorrow, Jerry.

But my view would be that if tomorrow was painted up, you'd say, let's not have this goddamn thing.

You know, shit-ass amounts of breathing on that.

Yeah.

Well, Jerry can walk.

That was the basics right on time.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, 2.30 speech, he would let it go.

I think tomorrow is a good day.

Yeah.

I don't think you should breathe.

Jerry can just say, I don't know.

Well, see, we had to do this today.

Actually, this was more to our self interest.

Oh, because we now have a list of the type of questions.

That's why I let it go.

I don't mind letting it go on.

I think, generally, I'd rather for the future years

Now, what is your judgment at the moment about the press conference?

Nah, I don't know.

I don't know yet.

My instinct, which is not a judgment yet, I prefer to hold it, hold it like this, feel it like this,

is that you should not sit down with your legs crossed.

Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

I agree with that.

Let me say, in terms of the technique building, I suggest that you do it rather than each group just walking through the building.

I don't know.

I think the idea of 9 o'clock.

Did we do any of it?

It was 7.30.

Or 7.

That's 7 o'clock.

7 o'clock.

Get it over with.

You see, I have better shape at 7 o'clock.

You don't get as big an audience.

We get the audience at 9 o'clock.

Do you mind doing that?

No, no, no.

But I don't know to make sure that's right then.

May not be related to your office, but we'll be ready for it.

Oh, yes, sir.

Yesterday.

Yesterday?

Oh, yes, sir.

Thank you.

Is this something to do?

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

I suppose that since we only have 19 votes on the Republican side on that bill at the Senate, but had we received what we need to vote on the bill about sustain, the vote that the gentleman would have assessed it as

And we had 22 votes.

More than the, you know, additional medicine, we would have gotten more.

What, uh, what, you know, impact presidential leadership or lawyer leadership or something like that.

They ask him one question about resign, and, and, and, uh, Scott said, Scott said, So I don't know, that's my job.

he said the first body that

involved in any of that type of activity.

It hasn't even been discussed.

The demonstration of this is, I think, raised a little bit.

There was no written question on that question.

There was no sustained question.

Was there a little bit of a thing that was said about it?

And it's just, they had .

Marty Schramm said, George Bush is a great lawyer.

He said, we talked to Marty Schramm yesterday after this meeting here.

He said, Marty, we had a brief request from his family.

He said, you had us in hospital.

He said, well, who was?

And he added to the press.

And there's a difference.

The press don't press videos that continue on Saturday night.

Yeah, that's right.

So are we.

Well, they translated them.

So there's what we had yesterday out of their system.

It's like a multiple choice.

That's the president.

I cannot believe what they've done.

Oh, God.

There'll be a day like this.

There will be.

I think what you've done is cool.

They don't want to go that far.

They're going to basically report that they've said they've had any distress.

That's, you know, that's a big one.

Absolutely.

That's a big one.

Okay.

And I don't think we're going to do that.

Right.

We're going to do this stuff, so... We'll probably have to do it next week.

Next week, yeah.

Next week.

I don't know if we should go this time.

That's my judgment now.

We'll see how they do.

Round and round.

See how things go.

Yeah, I don't think it's bad.

That's the thing I forgot about this time.

I can't.

Henry, I should put him out of the briefing here.

Maybe on his talks.

Yeah.

We can talk to Al about this as well.

Yeah, here's what I think.

Here's what I think.

Henry, I'm glad you put him out of the briefing.

And in the context of that brief, getting locked up to talk about the national security, it had great credibility, you see.

Yes, you will have a version of it, yes, on the national security issue, but yes, there will be evidence of the national security issue.

Charge questions on the national security issue.

The success of the mission was based on a common idea and a sense of responsibility.

And in addition to that, and I said, the man responsible for this policy turned the general into that policy which he has now succeeded.

The question was, President Turner, a special intelligence agent, why don't you answer that gentleman?

Well, the president felt that there was a need for a non-parachute argument.

So that is more holistic than argument.

Right.

That's one aspect of the statement.

The second aspect of the statement addresses the working on such an argument.

It happened in 40 years.

It is a context

of reality, but not incorrectly, unfairly, intramarital.

So that's .

But that's really the concern.

That's very .

But don't be concerned about the .

This is a very sensitive issue .

I mean, the cost .

There's a lot of other stuff .

Is there ?

I mean, I could not perform that role.

Because they didn't have any blacks.

They didn't want long hairs.

They don't want to.

The president was not an attacker.

But that's the type of thing that I helped with as a construction actor.

I was worried about the consequences for the rest of the world and the people in this community.

I'm from this community.

I used to regret it.

Partial society is going to know what its message is going to be.

The bios are going to know what it is.

I think it's better than we tend to forget.

I'm not so sure that in the real world,

But in terms of waiting for the exact material, I mean, I guess I just want to make sure that if they don't know what you have, it scares them.

It scares them to death.

They're scoffing at you.

They're playing reggae records to you.

I don't know what they're intending to do with these discussions.

I don't know what they're doing.

And there is a show on the Bay of Pigs that we're considering.

In 10 years, I wish I could have stepped on the 10-year-old with an election to be classified.

If I haven't been in the garage, I shouldn't go out and give them the crack action tomorrow.

No, I agree.

We don't make it tomorrow.

I'm forced to do it.

I don't know.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but I have a video of a CIA agent who called me.

I don't know if that's the name of the story, but I called him.

I found out that he was working off of me.

I really felt some trouble with him.

He said, like, he's still in your shape, but we have a bastard who's out here.

I think they're trying to kill us today.

We've got to get the questions.

They don't ask about their relationship.

.

But we talked about it.

I have confidence in the author of the main instructions that I'm going to use.

I'm going to use the words John said in this chapter, and I'm going to say what we did.

Good action there, out of the country.

I was going to show pain, but just sustained activity.

Yeah, public exposure.

One of the things they had to do was to find another event after, what is it, I guess, the week, that week, when we got the callers, that's not, and whatever, they ought to have a public event, right in some place in that country.

That's right.

And it was similar to something that right after that, I think, in the restaurant, I was going to say, we've got ten days, you should probably work with another one.

But we don't have the time in this region to do that.

But we'll be able to assess this.

And we will.

We will.

We will prepare the state activity.

And we'll be back with great work.

Where's the European committee at the moment?

The European committee?

Are they going to finish this as we get out of their house?

By the end of the day.

What day is that?

Tomorrow or the day after.

They're out there, actually.

They're out there.

I, uh, I, I... Not only appointed, wasn't he appointed to the Senate?

Not by me.

I know, I know.

Good.

That's what I mean.

I don't know.

I recall... Maybe it's not me.

No.

That was my point.

I don't know who it was.

Weicker got it from the government.

No, you were that.

The government.

No, no, no.

They, uh, they're so different.

They like themselves so much that I don't see them.

They're all active.

They're a little substance.

They're not scary, and I do know a lot of people who say they're not scary.

They survive the day, but are the hell of a gal.

What you need to do if you want to do this, you need to run.

I'll buy you guys a car.

We're gonna have to do that.

You know?

I get it.

I decided to have a computer for this one.

I don't know if it's better.

I don't know if it's better or not.

I decided to have the cement which holds the whole bunch of the press when they come out.

Okay, make sure.

Sure, sure.

I decided to have a computer for this one.

Nixon & Ziegler on Watergate and White House press relations

AI Summary

Audio

Transcript (AI-generated)

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 23, 1973

Cite this conversation