Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 509-006
Date: Thursday, June 3, 1971 at 11:47 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/509-006

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:02] I was the L.A. guy.
[0:41] Do we get Eisenhardt as our president, or do we get Nixon as our president next time, and so forth?
[0:56] I was going to repeat it.
[0:58] For the first time, I'm not sure if I said it, but they all got the point in that press conference.
[1:01] They said, hey, I'm going to thank you for what I said in that press conference.
[1:03] They didn't have anything to do with it.
[1:05] It was arrested and all that bullshit.
[1:05] The best thing that happened to you in that press conference is the controversy that's arisen, because that's finally the fact that the press, they don't realize it.
[1:09] And still, I don't think that they're making a mistake.
[1:11] And thank you.
[1:12] It's great today.
[1:13] The American Civil Liberties Union has got a big blast against you.
[1:17] And they're going to think it's terrible that you've said you'll repeat this process again, that you urged other states to put it in feedback.
[1:28] Because if we can keep that controversy going, we can keep your position established and reestablished instead of just letting it be another blip in the nightmare.
[1:38] We're not even worried.
[1:42] I don't want it to be because we may have to do it again.
[1:44] We're going to be in that position.
[1:45] The cops are out.
[1:48] It's all a risk to us.
[1:50] Now, that's one issue that we know from our polls, Bob.
[1:51] Well, you know from the polls that you all sent up, you just, Jim, got a reaction.
[1:56] You know that's...
[1:58] Polls confirm what you...
[2:01] But everybody's got to show that polls are worse than we know them.
[2:05] You'd think that I just don't mind if that's the rule or anything, but I'm just overplaying it.
[2:21] I guess my name's pointed out to the press.
[2:25] I didn't, I don't know.
[2:25] I'm not, unless you have a really strong feeling about a president, I might be with you.
[2:27] Unless I have a president, I'm supposed to be able to deal with the general sense.
[2:30] Yeah.
[2:30] Unless you have a strong feeling, I'm not inclined to, you know, go out and make it again.
[2:33] Uh, the, uh...
[2:34] They think it's bad because they think, you know, you can't
[3:01] Refuse to talk about political things.
[3:04] You've got to answer, you know, how are they going to get their questions answered about political things?
[3:07] I'm not an answer.
[3:08] This is too bad.
[3:09] That's right.
[3:10] But they're, again, I think they're playing their own biases, and they're totally blind to the people.
[3:15] They don't understand that the people, there's nothing the people would rather have you say, and then I won't talk about politics.
[3:21] That's right.
[3:23] Talk about the presidency.
[3:24] You know, if you're a candidate, talk about politics.
[3:29] No, on the politics thing, Rob was not the only answer on that.
[3:41] He won't.
[3:42] It's a good answer.
[3:42] It's a good answer.
[3:44] But they're talking about it.
[3:44] I said it before.
[3:45] I said it.
[3:45] That's right.
[3:45] I said it.
[3:46] Remember when I was with the commentators that night?
[3:47] I said, look, I handled the campaign.
[3:50] This is the president.
[3:51] Gilpatrick made a point.
[3:51] He said, I don't know why you're so upset that presidents have always taken this position.
[3:54] He said, going back to Roosevelt, when reporter
[3:59] Robert Post of the New York Times asked him if he was going to run for a third term.
[4:07] And Roosevelt blew his top and said, you get the dunce cap and stand in the corner.
[4:11] He said, that's a very bad question for you to ask.
[4:13] And he put him in the corner.
[4:15] And four years later, somebody asked him if he was going to change vice presidents again.
[4:19] And he put him on the dunce cap thing.
[4:21] He said, we can talk about that.
[4:26] Don't hold positions.
[4:27] They're just trying to get me embroiled apparently in the goddamn universe.
[4:35] It's about all these political things.
[4:36] Then Phil Patrick does get off the track, but he says that the president did answer a number of political questions on civil rights and this and that and the other thing.
[4:47] And that's just totally, of course, everything you do is political in that context.
[4:51] So obviously you're talking part of the partisan political.
[4:54] The question is whether it's political.
[4:56] or whether it's candidate.
[5:06] You know the question is Democrat versus Republican.
[5:10] I didn't answer any questions on an individual.
[5:12] That's what we're talking about.
[5:13] It's Democrat versus Republican.
[5:13] I will not answer any questions.
[5:14] I won't answer any questions about the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee.
[5:16] I won't answer any questions about campaign.
[5:18] And I won't answer any questions regarding individual personalities of candidates.
[5:21] That's really what it is.
[5:22] There's a real difference there.
[5:25] Speaking of political dough, I was asked if he could see you either today or tomorrow morning back from another district around the country.
[5:50] Do you have a chance to report to him or do you want to?
[5:51] Sure.
[5:51] You've got a time section if you want to.
[5:52] And then that fills up the next press conference.
[5:53] You know, the next callback press conference.
[5:57] I don't have a strong feeling about it.
[6:04] What I'm getting at is that if we, it's a real question as to whether or not we want to sort of dominate the news with these more things.
[6:18] The difficulty is, I mean, despite all of our protestations, we cannot, I don't think we're going to get many positive things to say.
[6:24] You see my point?
[6:26] I think it's basically a defensive kind of a thing.
[6:36] That's right.
[6:37] I think you've got so much positive stuff about to come up.
[6:38] You're going to be dumb if any, you know, fall enters, the whole track starts bubbling.
[6:43] You're going to be dumb in any of this.
[6:44] Nobody's ever seen you for a while.
[6:46] Well, I won't be for long.
[6:48] That's...
[6:51] You know, in Vermont, anything in June, the boys start July, August, September.
[6:58] You know, the idea of politics, what the hell do those people expect me to do?
[7:02] I mean, there's, there's where Buchanan was off track, you know, all these actions he suggested.
[7:08] They really expect, the minute I get down into the ring with those bastards, first of all, I'm going to get the equal time.
[7:13] We're still, you know what I mean?
[7:14] Second, I am the president, sir.
[7:17] I'm going to use this press conference to take on McCloskey.
[7:19] Well, that's the point.
[7:22] I'm going to use the press conference to take on McCloskey or anybody else.
[7:25] I will talk about the problems, whatever.
[7:27] I'm going to talk about politics, sir.
[7:30] People don't want you to.
[7:31] They've hired you to be president, and they don't want you.
[7:35] That's right.
[7:35] Looking around, the people, yeah, they need to tell you.
[7:40] Oh, they're going to come in, sir.
[7:40] They're going to come in, sir.
[7:41] We should never care about columns, anyway.
[7:44] I expected I would end up in the lead when that works.
[7:57] That's how smart he is.
[7:57] He's Westmoreland's own hero.
[7:58] He's destroyed the army in the process.
[8:02] I've got to say, he's got to take control.
[8:03] He's Westmoreland's own hero.
[8:04] I'm going to try.
[8:05] Second, I should...
[8:08] When we got needed, we started to argue.
[8:18] We got an unemployment figure that didn't have any value.
[8:24] The rough figures that George Sheridan looked at, he had about a quarter of a million increase in employment.
[8:34] But a bigger increase in employables.
[8:34] And the operations.
[8:35] And the jugglable definition.
[8:49] I don't know.
[9:02] I thought that was fun.
[9:20] Right?
[9:23] Paul and I are never, never, never talk politics with each other.
[9:38] We never answer political questions.
[9:39] And it's true of all of our people.
[9:40] We don't need to answer.
[9:40] Which is an answer.
[9:41] I guess that's all right, too.
[9:44] say, oh, you know, he'd been there, that's the early version.
[9:54] It was obvious from all his conversations, probably even talking politics all around over the years, because not much came out of politics.
[9:58] His big lead came out.
[9:59] Well, it did.
[10:01] You know, Mitchell was going to lead to run the campaign.
[10:02] You're not going to do that.
[10:03] You're not going to get a Bob sign.
[10:04] That one wasn't really Bob's call.
[10:06] Ehrlichman told him to tell him that Ehrlichman would not be Attorney General.
[10:10] Because there have been a lot of do's and don'ts for what the name of God would do.
[10:19] Have we ever had anything out of that?
[10:21] Yeah, but you get it only from a hard-line guy who goes into something better.
[10:27] Alright.
[10:27] You can't go in, the problem is Bob goes in to try and answer their question or something.
[10:32] You go in that way, you can't get anything out of it.
[10:33] The only way you get anything is if you've got some line you want to get across, and you go in and go over your line.
[10:38] I was thinking about this issue, this police thing.
[10:57] I had never seen so many of those guys at all that came up.
[10:59] I mean, apparently the press conferences have been far more newsworthy in terms of things that were said and interesting and so forth, in my view.
[11:05] Did we misjudge them?
[11:06] They got a point.
[11:12] Well, then the press has built it up.
[11:20] Well, then they built it up on the TV.
[11:25] The fact that they gave you that opportunity to repeat.
[11:30] Oh, yes.
[11:30] They did.
[11:33] I don't want to focus on that, but on the normal question.
[11:40] And the question was about, in answering the questions, they look so good.
[11:47] Yeah, I mean, I was just mad I didn't film that.
[11:49] I thought that was good.
[11:51] Come to think about it, I think I was right.
[11:52] I mean, I know comics do encourage this dress.
[11:53] On this one.
[11:54] I think it was probably right not to crack them.
[12:04] I think on this issue, to say, oh, I've had enough of that and so forth, I think it got across to the other three or four.
[12:14] I think in the future, on another issue, when they come on something, to crack them would be a better thing.
[12:18] I think I ought to start hitting them a little.
[12:19] What is your view on this?
[12:20] Or do you think we may have a safe option on this one?
[12:21] Not necessarily on any of the two.
[12:25] Well, would you like to talk to, uh, should we talk to Ziegler, uh, if you want to talk to Ziegler a bit about this?
[12:41] Yeah, we can go on.
[12:42] I don't think I'd bother with Scali on this one.
[12:45] His judgment would not be, Ziegler's would be the best on this one.
[12:53] Oh, it doesn't do any harm.
[12:56] Yeah, it wouldn't do any harm at all to get Scali and Moore both in there.
[13:06] Moore from the public side, Scali from the press side, and Ron from the snakes in here.
[13:08] I'm not doing it for the benefit of the press, so that they know that I don't have to prove that I can have press conferences, and I don't want the press to say, look, you fellows didn't have a chance to ask all your questions, and now I want to give you another chance.
[13:18] I want to come down for it.
[13:21] He's in California.
[13:22] Yeah.
[13:23] He wouldn't necessarily.
[13:27] But it may be that this time.
[13:30] It may be that this time.
[13:31] I think, yeah.
[13:31] I don't want to do the same thing this time.
[13:32] Having done it in California, it may be the best argument not to do it.
[13:36] That's the point.
[13:36] It looks like we're going to set a pattern.
[13:38] Maybe this time.
[13:43] I think here's another problem.
[13:43] We can do it this time.
[13:44] Say, why aren't you?
[13:45] What happened to your follow-up press conference?
[13:49] Because it's become a tradition.
[13:50] I think maybe that's a strong requirement you've got.
[13:52] That is a very strong argument.
[13:54] Because that's the way that anything like that, you know, you do two things the other way around.
[14:04] I tell you, it's much more controlled in California.
[14:11] Maybe we'd save this for places like California.
[14:14] Do it next time in Florida, too.
[14:16] Do the press conference in California, and then do a follow-up if you feel like it.
[14:22] And if it looks like you could do one before going to California or Florida, I'd like to do one in Florida sometime.
[14:27] Let them come over here.
[14:28] I'll get one out of the way down there.
[14:29] I think our next press conference after the convention should be in California.
[14:31] And I think it should be at 8 o'clock.
[14:32] Let's hit the California audience right square in the nose.
[14:34] Mums versus 31, the time before, 37, the time before that.
[14:42] And that's, summer is a good chunk of it.
[14:48] You get into daylight sickness, isn't the summer, I'm sure.
[14:52] But 27 million is a lot of 50 million people, isn't it?
[14:53] Yeah, it'd be 55 million people.
[14:53] I don't know, just, I don't realize the power of this thing.
[14:55] I don't know, about 55 million.
[14:57] Rather than farting around, I don't know.
[14:58] Even there.
[15:03] Anything else?
[15:09] Just anything else?
[15:11] Yeah.
[15:11] You just are hitting people.
[15:12] No way.
[15:12] 8 o'clock, sitting on the wall in order to support the police.
[15:15] Having the police today have that controversy over the other one is good.
[15:17] And the fact they brought it up, I just went right out and said, by God, we're going to keep this city going.
[15:20] We're going to stop these things.
[15:21] And the Boston police chief said, well, we're doing the same thing.
[15:25] He's a Democrat, of course.
[15:26] It's all right.
[15:26] They aren't going to let this issue get out to them.
[15:29] Well, they've been kicked around so much by so many politicians, and while they say they're cutting elections, they kick us around.
[15:43] Yeah.
[15:43] And I said, no.
[15:44] And they get down in late September, and everybody's with them for a month, and riding in police cars and wearing American flags.
[15:51] And I haven't seen any of those Democrats with an American flag on since.
[15:55] Did you know that?
[15:55] Yeah.
[15:55] Not about them, right?
[15:55] Yeah.
[15:56] Even Mike.
[15:56] Mike Mansfield used to came in during the campaign.
[15:57] He wore one.
[15:57] He hasn't worn it since.
[15:58] That's a pretty goddamn funny thing to do, isn't it?
[16:10] There's a government in there.
[16:11] I don't really think we're going to get it yet.
[16:15] I hope so.
[16:16] But we don't get somebody else.
[16:17] I really feel the government's just got to speak.
[16:18] That's the one answer.
[16:19] There's a lot of tough things we can do.
[16:21] There's a whole business of foreign aid that, what's his name, on the Hill is saying we shouldn't give aid to a nation that
[16:27] Doesn't abide, you know, the pedals, raises marijuana, raises opium, strips it out or something.
[16:36] Things like that, maybe we can't get through that.
[16:38] We can make a fuss about it at least.
[16:40] It makes some difference.
[16:42] On the marijuana thing.
[16:44] I mean, just the flat, opposed to legalization.
[16:47] You get the chance, you should say that.
[16:50] That was repeated by someone.
[16:51] I mean, your calls are on the cover.
[16:54] They picked it.
[16:54] Were those the only two things they picked up on?
[16:57] That made, you know, a little boy, a little child, the four of us, I guess, each other.
[17:11] The only one that really came through.
[17:16] He really agreed with you, though.
[17:18] It was great the way he stood firmly and demonstrated.
[17:19] Well, and the way it is, because Dan Kress is standing there, and every one of those people thinks you're wrong.
[17:27] And these guys are going to go out and say it.
[17:30] uh, should leave you without peace and security.
[17:44] Okay.
[17:44] Are they ready to enter?
[17:46] Yes, and this is, uh, Corrine Ridge is coming in first, just before, uh, the engines.
[17:49] And these people are not ready.
[17:50] Uh, they're, they will be ready.
[17:50] They've just been holding off the oil.
[17:51] I know it's just a little obvious.
[17:52] On this briefing, the Attorney General is to leave this briefing to the President, and I'm sure he'll be happy.
[17:56] All set.
[17:56] I see it.
[17:56] Great.
[17:57] Are you ready to enter?
[17:57] Yes, sir.
[17:57] Fine.
[17:57] And by the time that we're finished with this line,
[18:00] Can I get you to hear something nice like this?