Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 601 › Conversation 601-022

Nixon, Colson & Bull on Spiro Agnew and Supreme Court nominations

Saturday, October 23, 1971 · 12:17 PM–12:25 PM ET · Oval Office · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Bull, Stephen B.; Butterfield, Alexander P.; Colson, Charles W.Conversation601-022 on Tape 601 (tape position 03:18:30–03:25:42)StartSaturday, October 23, 1971 at 12:17 PMEndSaturday, October 23, 1971 at 12:25 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 601-022 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417179305 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Stephen Bull and Alexander Butterfield to coordinate logistics for an upcoming meeting with Vice President Spiro Agnew, specifically focusing on scheduling and arrival details. Following this, Charles Colson joined the President to discuss press reaction to recent Supreme Court nominations, including critical commentary from CBS newsman Dan Rather. The conversation concluded with a discussion on managing media relations and the administration's ongoing efforts to pressure news organizations regarding their reporting.

Audio

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NARA Description

On October 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Charles W. Colson met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:17 pm and 12:25 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 601-022 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 601-22

Date: October 23, 1971
Time: Unknown between 12:17 pm and 12:25 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Stephen B. Bull.

     [Unintelligible]

     Request for Alexander P. Butterfield

Bull left at an unknown time before 12:21 pm.

     Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
          -Schedule
                -Andrews Air Force Base
                      -Arrival time
                -Cabinet members
                -State Department
                -White House staff
                      -Old Executive Office Building [OEOB] staff
                -David C. (“Roger”) Hoopes

     The President's schedule
          -Forthcoming meeting with Vice President

Butterfield left and Charles C. Colson entered at 12:21 pm.

     Supreme Court nominees
          -The President's conversation with Richard A. Moore
               -Moore's conversation with newsmen
               -Herbert G. Klein
               -Colson’s conversation with Moore
               -Press
                     -Mary McGrory
          -Dan Rather
               -Commentary
                     -Herschel H. Friday
                     -Mildred L. Lillie
          -Colson's conversation with Moore
          -Rather
          -Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]
               -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
               -Richard S. Salant's memorandum to news chief
               -Marvin L. Kalb
          -Warren E. Burger
               -The President's decision-making process

     The President's schedule

The President and Colson left at 12:25 pm.

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 36% 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

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Yeah, I have a job.
I think it's a new problem we're already working with to stop the shooting, but when people are smart so often, I'm glad we can keep up the speed.
All right?
Yes, sir.
I have a letter from the trade council here from Chick-fil-A, and I will get back to you soon.
Where do we have them?
I'm trying to lay on some people to meet the vice president.
I don't think much has been done.
Where's he going again?
He comes here again.
It's 6 p.m., so I don't know.
Why don't you get a bus and put it around here if possible.
Dr. Hoopes has got the project pieces.
We'll be right back.
You might see when the...
I've got to set up a time to see him.
Why don't we just say, instead of telling him when he comes in, what the time will be, Tuesday, that we've got a time set for his reporting in.
In other words, that's the way, that's the way we have to announce the meeting right away.
So, would you set a time?
I will.
I think it's 10 o'clock Tuesday early.
Fair enough.
Yes, sir.
Well, I'll take off now.
I, uh, I talked to Moore.
I'm pretty late.
I'm trying to get out of here.
So I guess he decided he would.
But, uh, I took him after he took him.
But, uh, I don't know whether it's worth it.
Actually, as I told him, it's inevitable.
Everybody's, I mean, they depressed, you know, they got tired.
And they're going to try to explain this the rest of their lives.
Well, I told him very, very last night, Nixon in desperation chooses excellence.
And the old Rachel, she just died.
And rather, I've been talking to some people who would
Brandon, or rather, he was just up the wall.
He was so mad at himself.
I mean, he had nobody to blame but himself.
Mad?
Sorry, did you miss him?
Sure, sure.
And he had built up this, you know, on Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, he came on and said it's all set.
It's Friday and Lily, and he always talks positively.
And then comes right back and dreams up this wild story yesterday about how you...
You got boxed into it and had to make this last-minute move.
I mean, he's on that school of thought.
The other school of thought is that the whole thing was a charade.
Now, I humped Dick up a little bit.
I told Dick, really, what he ought to do is talk to both 18-year-olds and say, you guys did this yourself.
What the hell are you doing?
Stop trying to crawl out of the box.
And I think if a story is out, watch it.
I can, sure.
Oh, he takes it very well.
You know, we've got all those CBS guys just scared to death because we put a lot of heat on them.
I don't know what the Bob told you, but I got smuggled a copy of a memorandum that Solana sent to his news chief.
Just scorched Marvin Kell for a bad report he gave on the
During the lie detector test, where he concluded a commentary by saying, this proves that the administration is hostile to newsmen or something.
And Solan just raves holy hell with it.
And Solan would never admit that.
He never admitted he interferes with the news.
He doesn't even roast and count.
All those CBS guys are gunshot.
Just a call from a sponsor.
I'd say, you know, you're honest.
I can't say that in this question.
If you look back, remember all the injections about when I bought a burger?
Well, the phrase I told him to use, Mr. President, and he will, is that, and the sake of the sake, take it as a high White House aide without attribution name-wise,
is that the press is right now desperately trying to dig themselves out of the hole that they dug themselves into.
And that'll take a little while.
Thank you.

Also recorded on October 23, 1971

  • 012-106 11:59 AM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, King Hassan, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 11:59 am to 12:08 pm.
  • 601-017 11:59 AM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Alex G. Toumayan, and King Hassan met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:59 am and 12:17 pm.
  • 012-107 12:17 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 12:17 pm.
  • 601-018 12:17 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:17 pm.
  • 601-019 12:17 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:17 pm and 12:21 pm.
  • 601-020 12:17 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:17 pm and 12:21 pm.
  • 601-021 12:17 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:17 pm and 12:21 pm.
  • 601-023 12:25 PM · 29 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:25 pm and 11:59 pm.

All 32 conversations from October 23, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 601-022, October 23, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417179305). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/601-022 (accessed November 2, 2026).