Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 686-004
Date: Friday, March 17, 1972 at 7:58 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/686-004

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[6:02] We're working on it.
[6:03] Oh, yeah.
[6:03] We talked about it earlier.
[6:06] We just talked about it earlier.
[6:08] It's a, I think, an action that needed to, you know, carry with the message.
[6:12] And I think it's just a bipartisan, you know, we already have a person here.
[6:31] Well, the thing that changed is, you know, I'm going to call it a day.
[6:37] I'm going to do it again.
[6:37] Recap of the message.
[6:39] What you said today is showing the bipartisan leaders how to get into the division.
[6:42] They were trying to get Congress to go to that.
[6:45] Right.
[6:46] And then this bipartisan thing is massive.
[6:49] It's massive.
[6:54] Yeah.
[6:55] Good.
[6:56] Good.
[6:56] Good.
[6:56] Good.
[7:03] Banner and post?
[7:11] Plays it?
[7:14] No.
[7:18] What floor is it last night?
[7:24] Uh...
[7:31] I know you can do a good job.
[7:34] I think we're going to meet with the brief.
[8:07] um is
[8:27] It is in no way an interference of the Constitutional Amendment.
[8:30] There are a number of suggestions being considered by the House and the Congress on whether we should go forward with the Constitutional Amendment.
[8:39] And any of those that have worked out a reasonable plan can certainly go forward.
[8:44] The problem there is that it takes too long.
[8:47] And in the meantime, we did that awfully hard.
[8:51] I'm sorry.
[8:59] That's, well, very nice.
[9:01] No, but the guys like Brock, Baker, and so on, who are Constitutional Amendment-oriented were in power, all made the point that they were glad he didn't reject the Constitutional Amendment rule, and that they were for what he said.
[9:18] Thank you.
[9:20] Thank you.
[9:31] No, I can't.
[9:32] No, because I thought about the governor.
[9:35] The governor's good.
[9:37] I thought there was a great governor on the bus.
[9:38] He didn't.
[9:40] Well, the more I think about it, the more I consider what he did for the strategy.
[9:44] I was expecting he'd stay with it.
[9:46] He doesn't come in right after anything.
[9:49] He deserves to come in until the next step.
[9:50] It's very smart of him.
[9:51] What he's doing is missing the cutting edge.
[9:55] I guess that's it.
[10:02] He went against it.
[10:03] He said it was... Well, Gover did it very hard on those that, uh, that you met.
[10:10] Well, I forget what he said.
[10:13] I was just trying to say, this is the first thing he said.
[10:21] That's right.
[10:21] Yeah.
[10:25] The right hasn't done it very hard yet.
[10:27] Wallace is supposed to do it today.
[10:28] He's making a major speech.
[10:39] Poor old Andrew, I mean, he said that nothing he knows of ever will.
[10:42] Hmm.
[10:44] That's that poor guy.
[10:45] What about the other call?
[10:47] He told me he'd get a six, but at least get himself on his feet.
[10:50] He doesn't get a six.
[10:50] What about Jackson?
[10:51] Jackson had a six and a kick.
[10:52] Well, that person didn't get a kick.
[10:56] Well, that's it.
[10:59] They got...
[11:02] They got Brock out right away, which is good.
[11:05] If we can get some of our...
[11:10] We've got a number of others out.
[11:12] The reaction at the end of the end, they were just, they might help.
[11:15] They're working.
[11:16] They're all going to work.
[11:19] We've got to be ready for the blocks.
[11:29] Let's see.
[11:30] Roy Wilkins was on the team yesterday before you came in.
[11:35] He was against that.
[11:37] He was against her.
[11:39] I'm going to put it where it was, where I don't want it to happen.
[11:46] The Corps of People was on the other way.
[11:49] The Big Four?
[11:49] Yeah.
[11:50] Well, right now, they're on.
[11:52] Before you went on, they're all out right now.
[11:54] The Corps, as you said last night, just totally cracked.
[11:59] Wicker.
[12:00] Yeah.
[12:00] I bet you hate them.
[12:02] Oh, the wickers.
[12:02] Yeah, I mean, wickers.
[12:04] Those guys, wicker in battle, they're just, you know, laying down in tears and crying.
[12:10] Oh, my God.
[12:17] We're in a place where it belongs.
[12:24] It looks like what you've done is you've told me that you had technically not got the support of about 5% on the wing right and about 20% on the wing left.
[12:35] And you've got 75%.
[12:35] It's kind of like where you were in the manager on that.
[12:42] We're bugging the contract.
[13:03] reaction and your calls.
[13:04] I did live on the spot exactly the same as you did.
[13:06] And a couple of students, college president and her professor, you know, thought it was terrible.
[13:11] And we told people, college professors do good.
[13:15] But we had this cross-section thing that's terrible.
[13:18] It sounds terrible to me and everybody, but we've got that thing on our whole, you know, office computer now, categorized so that we can, the computer can put up a cross-section for us on these kind of issues.
[13:30] and give us a set of calls today that we should tell people about.
[13:39] But they got those calls.
[13:40] We had that set up.
[13:41] They were able to personally punch them up ahead of time.
[13:43] They made the calls, and we got all of them in within a half hour after he went off the air.
[13:51] This is a pretty good, you know, very good reaction.
[13:57] Very good reaction.
[13:59] All.
[14:01] All of them.
[14:07] All of them.
[14:08] And he had 10, he had a son of mine too.
[14:15] He read about the deep end town and he said, he made a point there.
[14:22] He said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said,
[14:34] He said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said,