On May 15, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, John B. Connally, Ronald L. Ziegler, Cornelia Wallace, Edward M. Kennedy, Eugene T. Rossides, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:16 pm to 6:06 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 724-008 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
it may be a bad idea to turn off the press
Why don't we just have her go up with the press without me?
How's that sound to you?
Yeah.
Or do you think I have to go too?
Oh, hell no.
Look, if you go over there, you've got to stand there and talk to 800 people or whatever it is throughout assassinating presidents, because that's all anybody's going to talk about.
They're not going to talk about the truth.
Right.
Well, can she go ahead and do it?
She can.
I don't see why not.
She can do it.
Right.
Okay.
Because the people were already there.
It would still be better if they weren't impressed.
Oh, well, you can't do that.
That's fine.
I didn't just go ahead and put the event, but without me there.
Mr. Dexter, please.
Go ahead.
I don't know if you've ever graciously smiled at people in the rest of the union, all of a sudden, Christ, because you're a boss.
It was the same damn stuff.
He fell down on the stage and his wife threw herself down on top of him.
She did?
Yeah.
That's the news story.
You see if she gets...
It's kind of incongruous.
People's minds aren't going to be on Google next week.
Nobody's going to be thinking about it.
That's right.
Good God, this is a kind of thing.
The other thing I was going to say, I wondered if you were able to come home tomorrow.
I think we're going to go.
Somebody hit the little bell now.
Well, if he lives, you know, if he's going to be all right, I think he probably can.
In fact, maybe it's good.
That's why I want him to come over.
We've got to decide that.
Well, we'll take the Wallace story to the Vietnam of the news tonight.
Too bad.
It was a good day in Vietnam.
God dang it all.
Has anybody ever thought of it?
It's ironic.
He uses, apparently, a bulletproof podium.
He has a thing with that.
Oh, I know.
He's petrified.
He shot glass in front of me, finished his speech, stepped out from behind the podium, started.
And I guess there's still .
Apparently, it was still on the speaker, which ended up moving.
Here at Laurel?
Laurel, right.
It's a rich guy.
Very, yeah, I don't know.
Yeah?
Who are you?
Nobody's going to complain about our having to do the service anymore, are they?
No.
I'll learn from Teddy.
Probably have to give it to Teddy, you know, too.
That's something I'll probably have to consider, because he's the holdout.
Now, he's moving, and Schultz goes in there.
He's agreed to stay on as Secretary of the Consolidated Confirm, which is good.
He's agreed to go on the FIAAB, just in case there's a good reason to come up here.
And I'm going to work out with him to send him on a trip to Latin America after he leaves to be in Brazil.
His view is very, very .
He said that he leaves and says immediately, I want to support the president and so forth.
He said he's going to indicate that, as he did last week.
But he says, I don't.
He says, I want to let the other shoe drop right out.
I can't support him.
I can't support him.
He shouldn't be against the Democratic Party.
He shouldn't be against the Democratic platform.
Yeah.
Well, the deal is here is I definitely shouldn't go because, you know, they just have that impression of us good spirits and so on.
And I don't want to put an apron on the party.
Well, and then leave.
Well, I don't know.
I just think it's so, it's just so incongruous, basically, to be, you know, they'll come in and that sort of thing.
I mean, yeah.
Well, you know, it's, you know, people are just, they're very upset about this kind of thing because of the candidate that, and so forth.
One of the other candidates will be shot.
I should just...
They did?
Yeah.
Yes, they did.
Well... We all hope that the President could not pretend, but...
But you could still give your remarks, is there?
Oh, I see.
Well, we'll see.
Well, at least, yeah, fine.
Okay.
Anyway, I'll have to decide very soon.
But I just can't be there in terms of...
yeah yeah yeah i know okay i'll see about it well just to come over and see that i appreciate it
have the occasion and of course express appreciation for all you've done.
So to get a little bit of a remark about what they've done to redecorate the lighthouse, I will not be able to attend the reception, but this is excellent.
We'll be glad to see you there.
And I might not be a bad man.
In other words, not just go in the morning immediately, just to go over and
Well, he should.
Yeah.
See, I wouldn't shake hands.
That doesn't get as handy as a minute of silence standing at home with a prayer.
It ain't going to be no moment of silence.
In fact, it's just, if John's out there, do you want to see what he thinks?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
No, I don't know.
I'm not going to do that.
I know.
I understand that.
Thank you.
I had a couple of thoughts.
I think, John, that you ought to give us that goddamn enemy.
Now, if something happens to some revenge, they'll say we didn't provide it.
Yeah.
So we, uh, and I think if you ought to, if you ought to announce it yourself tonight, I mean, you could say you have, uh, do you mind, you got a cigarette or anything to put this off?
I just think it's a good idea to just show that we're, we're aware of this thing.
No, I don't mind at all.
I think I ought to get ahold of the proceedings and tell him we're going to do it.
Second point, let me ask you about one procedural point.
The present indications are that he is serious, but not credible.
They say he's in a stable condition.
Well, he claims he can't move his legs.
Well, the only story that he was a bullet in his spine.
Or as far as near his spine.
Well, the operation we do these days is pretty damn good.
But if he got his spine... Well, they don't know.
They don't know.
They won't know.
They won't know.
They've got an x-ray and the bullet's still in there.
Where were you when you got shot?
Well, it came in the shoulder.
Hit your spine?
No.
Came in the shoulder, right about there.
It came out right here.
Did you go unconscious?
Oh, yeah.
I didn't follow that thing.
Of course you did, but I just didn't get that close enough to you.
I was conscious for, oh, I don't know, a minute or two.
Less than a minute.
I was conscious long enough to give a third shot.
Consciously.
I tried to, and this is when I was hit.
I was seated on the jump seat.
She was seated right in front of me.
And I was seated right in front of him.
And I heard the shock of what I thought was a shock.
and turn around, just instinctively, because he came from back over my shoulder to see if I could catch him out of the corner of my eye.
I did, looking this way, and I was in the process of turning this way, looking in the back seat when I got hit.
And, uh... Just a minute.
But you saw it all, and I was conscious, uh... Gene... You know, uh, Gene Brownlee, and let's get a detail on Kennedy tonight...
And I want to announce it over here, I think, or have Rob say that.
I think I could slip over and say it.
Well, let me get you.
Shirley Chisholm is on this call.
She's asking for protection now.
Get her to order it.
Really?
How the hell do you get boarded?
I don't know how you get boarded.
Get it.
But don't take your kind of sons on a bitchy shooter.
It's only for a brief time.
Listen, it's only a month.
Month and a half.
Well, eight weeks.
The question is whether or not we want to do Kennedy first or do two of them together.
I don't know.
See, I don't want this to build up so that you're forced into it.
Who else is left out?
Who else is left out?
You've got Mills.
Yeah, but they're not active candidates.
I just want to tell you, I just want to tell you, he's not an active candidate.
Sure, but Chisholm is.
Kennedy's asked for it.
Kennedy asked for it, didn't he?
At some point.
All right, run down to this.
Call the chief.
Tell him to be the very old man.
Kennedy and Chisholm both.
All right.
I'll play a call to him.
He needs more recent information.
All right, get something and call us for him.
See, John, that's exactly what I anticipated.
The heat would go off, and then we'd react to the heat, and I'd repeat it to him.
Yeah, okay.
All right.
Well, in any way, you know, it's only seven weeks.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, huh.
Yeah, huh.
That's fine.
The other thing, I was not granted the... Yeah, oh, that's fine.
That's fine.
Now, incidentally, you're still protecting Muskie.
Oh, yeah.
Yes, well, unless...
He gets reduced coverage.
He gets reduced coverage of the other bombs.
You've got a lot of them.
We get them all over this country.
And he's a couple of Christchurch vice presidents.
I had two brain years, even when I was in Caracas.
Well, this proves exactly the point you were talking about.
He, Wallace, had 50.
That's right.
50?
50.
Oh, hell.
He has 50 agents.
Now, not all at one time, but he's got a lot of agents.
You see, they have to go with him.
But I'm at 17 with him at this moment.
John, I have another thing that I'm going to ask your advice on.
It's small, but it's terribly important.
It's that damn thing in the East Room.
Hello, Ron.
Ron, why don't you announce that... You want to go out and do it?
You want me to do it?
I think you should.
Hold on.
Okay.
We've just got announced full Secret Service protection being offered to Senator Kennedy and to...
at the Congresswoman Chisholm.
Chisholm.
What's her first name?
Chisholm.
Chisholm, yeah.
And that others would receive the reduced cost of coverage if they so desired.
Yeah.
What do you think you should do?
What do you see the problem?
you're going to have one you've got a debate going now on kennedy and chisholm has already asked for it she's just asked for it i agree to announce it i'm just wondering do you want to go up there and do that maybe no i really don't think i'll do it that's right the secretary of the president and the uh secretary of the president of the problem and uh
The Secretary of the United States and the President, of course, approved the Secretary's action.
How does that sound?
SECRETARY KERRY, You made that comment, or did you just say you ordered it?
SECRETARY KERRY, Yeah.
I wanted to say that the President asked the Secretary to come over.
They discussed the matter, and the President said that we should take every precaution for all candidates and for all directives.
The Secretary offered to offer Secret Service protection, full Secret Service protection,
Senator Kennedy, which is just a, and protection is necessary for others who are not in this action.
Well, you can't say that Kennedy is a candidate.
You can't say that everybody knows he is.
He's traveling around stumping and stirring people up.
Mills isn't stirring anybody up.
Nobody's going to shoot one of them.
I think the idea is, I called him up because that was exactly what happened.
I anticipated this.
I went through this over the evening when Bobby was shot.
At that time, they all provided secret service.
Well, and I'd rather it come from you as an order, because, see, we've taken a position that under the law, we can't offer it to Kennedy.
All right.
We'll say that under – we'll say that the President, because Senator Kennedy is very active and traveling around the country at this time, that the direction that he would be provided, I don't see him in service coverage.
You know what I mean?
If he decided to be offered, the same just –
They'll say, well, you consider Kennedy a candidate?
Well, I would say it is, that Secretary of the Treasury already has a legal opinion that convinces him that the senator does not qualify for the protection as a, quote, candidate.
Unquote.
But notwithstanding this, the President has directed that protection be offered.
Be offered.
That's right.
Because to just guard against any potential danger.
You see what I mean?
We'll say Secretary of Treasury has a legal opinion that he is not entitled to a legal present directive that he... Then I'll say, well, why Kennedy and why not... John Gardner?
Right.
Take another example.
But Kennedy's the only one under the Congress tried to circumvent the Secretary.
I know the argument that it is convenient, but we all know, everybody in the right mind in this town knows that Teddy Kennedy is next to Wallace, is the most vulnerable of any man out there.
I don't want to say that.
It would be flawed.
All right.
May I?
May I brief?
It's just one minute before the background on this.
Shouldn't we notify the senator's office before you do this on the press?
Yeah.
I can do that.
Yeah.
No, Rosselli should do it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Or the chief.
Or the chief.
Yeah.
Yeah, we'll show up to them.
Both of us.
Riley should notify first before you do this.
That's right.
The background on this is simply that the advisory committee, which is composed of five people, Hugh Scott, Manstein, Tommy Keeble,
Carl Albert and Jerry Ford met, and they tried to write a criteria that would include Kennedy.
The law says that we afford protection for candidates for president and vice president.
And they tried to write a criteria to say that he and Andrew got 20%
of the focus in any column, and this was written specifically to include Kennedy, even though he's not a active candidate, would be afforded protection.
We got in a fighting discussion about whether or not that qualified under the law.
The law says, uses the word candidate.
We came back and we told them that we would offer, we would offer it to candidate if in our judgment.
The law permitted us to do so.
This is an advisory committee.
The Secretary of the Treasury has the final determination.
We came back, we briefed it very carefully, leaned toward leniency.
But Judge Pierce said there's no question.
He's not entitled to it.
He's not a candidate.
He is a non-candidate.
He has specifically disavowed any interest as a candidate.
So we felt, under the law, we could not offer him protection.
That's the background.
Therefore, and I had written Mansfield that, and sent him a copy of the legal opinion, and wrote every member of the advisory committee that, and sent him a copy of the legal opinion.
So that's the background.
Now the President's in a position to say, I don't care.
I'm ordering you to.
Well, the President can't provide, can't direct the provision of medical service or of secret service to anybody.
You know, the President provided to Dawson on occasion, as I recall, didn't he?
Oh, yeah.
And President Dawson did this in 1968.
You see, that's kind of right for everybody.
That's right.
So you've got ample press support, but just say that now, notwithstanding, there was some legal questions as to whether or not Senator Kennedy was entitled to it.
President, now, as a speaker, let's have a final question.
President, President, President, President.
Incidentally, John, I think you ought to call Kevin.
I think you ought to call Kevin on that.
We're out of time.
Senator Kennedy, please, for Secretary Connors.
So I think we're trying to be on a C-man scale, is the question that's tonight.
And I think it's, I think the President directed these, and one other bit of information, the Senate has passed a resolution.
In effect, after my letter to them and after the legal opinion, the Senate passed a resolution
In effect, putting the decision in the hands of the advisory committee and taking it out of the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, so that they could, solely for the purpose of providing protection for Kennedy.
The House is not acting on it, but the President's now directing it.
You can tell John your receipts, if you will, of course, and tell the members of the advisory committee.
Thank you.
Uh, just a minute.
This is Jerry Wallace.
So, Ms. Wallace, I just wanted you to know that we were terribly concerned about this shooting of your husband, and we just hope and pray that everything goes well.
I remember the time we had that nice visit down in Alabama.
Yeah, that's right.
How are things going?
But they don't have the test behind them.
They come with their X-ray and their glasses.
He is conscious.
Yeah.
How's his spirit?
Yeah.
Well, you tell him to just keep his spirit, and tell him that all of us people in politics have got to expect some dangers, and that Mrs. Nixon and I both send our very best wishes, and we'll be sure to remember our thoughts and our prayers.
And you'll tell him to write, because I'll call you, please.
Oh, yeah.
Right.
I've got to say one thing for him.
He's a fighter.
You remember, you remember, you can tell him a little history.
Theodore Roosevelt was shot when he was campaigning as a third-party candidate in the final election.
And he went on and finished the speech.
Of course, he wasn't going to shut down the show business.
So tell him that the politicians are too tough to meet up.
Let's get him a little better than this guy.
I don't know if she'll be there.
I don't know.
In any case, he's going to stop it.
She's going to laugh.
She says he'll probably be out there running against you in November.
You know, this will give him a big boost.
Oh, God.
He's a celebrity now.
He never was before.
I'll tell you what, both of them are under disarmament.
That's very similar to your thoughts about this old man.
He probably did deliver it.
Yeah.
But not if it went up, if they shot him.
Well, for both of us, Dave Dawkins had been bad.
But it has to be.
It's that which is more lodged against his mind.
He said he doesn't have much room in his legs.
So that may be just, you know, how it is in Georgia.
Oh, yeah.
Well, he'll have a plate for all his work.
Yeah, well, he's armed up in a sling.
Man, did you see him in a wheelchair?
I'll lay you money.
He wins the Merrill Cranker.
I've got money.
I guess you will.
Michigan, too.
You think he went that way?
Probably.
After this?
John feels you should go over and do the thing that you said, and that you and Mrs. Nixon both ought to leave.
Unless you get some word.
It's not that he's all right.
If he's all right, I think you might think about staying.
People aren't going to know that.
They aren't going to know that.
We aren't going to know.
No.
He has to stay with them.
He's got to talk to all those people.
They're all going to laugh about assassinating Miles.
I don't want to be Mr.
Laughing.
Well, that's the point.
Yeah, I would do it.
I would, frankly, I would walk in and have a very brief statement, just as you would talk to me.
And tell them, some of them may not know what happened.
But you, Mr. Secretary, for your work, this is open for full press coverage.
But that's all, that's fine.
They didn't go ahead and just say it didn't work.
They didn't say it didn't work.
Like I said, we were planning every Sunday of the day, but you know, Dr. Wallace's job.
I want to give you a report that I just told Mrs. Wallace and he is resting comfortably.
We will not have a final.
But we're, of course, concerned.
We're greatly concerned.
And, uh, this and that.
And, uh, we, we're running out of reception, but you, Mr. Vaughn, we would like for all of you to, to, uh, to view the room.
And, uh, but Mr. Nixon and I will, will not attend.
Walk out, please.
That's fine.
But whatever the president says will be heavily pledged.
Well, that's what I said, Mr. President.
That's the point I was making.
Okay.
Thank you.
See you then.
Sorry, John.
Only ten minutes.
I don't think so.
He's right in the middle of it.
He asked if you'd mind if he finished first.
I'm sorry?
He's got a Georgetown cool hat over there that he's in the middle of.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, I beg your pardon.
I'm a little dull.
I didn't hear the Georgetown routine yet.
Well, I ended it fast.
I mean, so I'm sorry.
Oh, she's a real bitch.
Great.
Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with that kind of press coverage.
I think it's great.
It's your, yeah, it's a way to get yourself on.
It won't be on the news, so it won't matter.
It's just going to move on then.
I think I just can't fail to go over this.
No, no.
It's an overplay.
I think it's overplay.
I'll say it's good that we used the radio to view over the committee's service condition.
It's an extra nine minutes out of ten to reception.
We hope that you will have the opportunity to view the new rooms.
Right.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate all you've done to make this possible.
I'm grateful for all who contributed to it and so forth.
We know you understand that.
Well, should I?
Excuse me, sir.
Their family would be quite heavily out there for it.
Should I speak?
Where the hell is this guy?
Well, Gray was sitting in the crack.
I don't know where he is.
This is Gray.
Where's Guy?
Where's Guy?
Where's the insurance?
It's a devil view.
It seems to me, John, that this, obviously, if anything happens to him, this would change everything.
That's for tomorrow.
I don't think it's going to happen.
Because, you know, as in, shall we say, a satisfactory condition, I think we go right ahead.
Is that your view?
I think so.
Otherwise, how the hell are you just going to hang on?
No, no.
And I don't... Or do you have other feelings?
No, I don't.
I think we have to... No, I think we have to be careful about overreacting now to what he said, what happened to him.
He's all right tomorrow.
Yeah.
And then... Yeah, just go ahead.
Then go ahead.
But if he's not, then we ought to...
scrubbing for tomorrow.
Well, I had a feeling the part of her that he didn't know how a lot better reports that we would get in here concerned.
Did you have a problem?
No.
The media is going to crank it up and we've been having trouble getting straight reports.
We've got your doctor over there.
Yeah.
Is he in the pheasant?
No, he went over to the Holy Cross where Paul is at.
The doctor told us we're offering the facilities of the dentist that he wants to go over there.
I think I do have to go.
I think we're just going to thank them all.
I would.
I think that's... And I think I can bring a little note that I'm just talking to Mrs. Wallace.
I've been delayed.
I've just talked to her before and I'm out of time.
Frankly, I think that's good.
You've just told us our thoughts and prayers for all of America.
We hope to be able to cover so forth and so on.
And we're here for the open.
We will not be attending the reception.
But we don't even say we're not attending the reception.
We just walk out.
We should say we're not attending the reception.
That looks like purgating your dead or something.
What would you do on that, John?
Well, I think you might just say it.
I hope you will understand the business and I do not have a receding line.
Yeah, if you do not have a receding line, then I want you to enjoy the situation and hold on to the circumstances.
which I want to check on again, and we will not be having you receiving that.
We hope you enjoy your stay here.
This is your house.
Goodbye.
And that covers you that you can leave, or if he gets well, he's up having a good time, and you come back, which you won't do, but... You won't know that.
Oh, listen, George will stay in that damn hospital for a week.
He's smart.
At least leave without critical bullets for a couple days.
He is.
He's smart.
I must say, though, I mentioned
I was going to say, I mentioned Theodore Roosevelt.
I should have mentioned he didn't win.
I also should have mentioned that
He didn't help him get any more books.
He was shot near a road in Wisconsin or someplace by an assassin.
And the son of a gun had been shot like that, and the old rough rider said, by God, this is one who could take more of that than bring down a rough rider.
He stood there and finished his speech, right?
What had happened is it went through the, his manuscript was in his pocket somewhere.
It went through the manuscript, went through, he went ahead and handed the book straight away.
He closed it and finished it right on the end, and he was going to go to his son.
Senator, I'm in the office of the president, and I hope you know what my situation has been with respect to protection for you.
It was not a matter of reflection of a personal desire, but what our people thought was an interpretation of the language.
But the president asked me to come over here a minute ago.
He said he doesn't really care what the hell the law provides as far as our council is concerned.
He thinks that you're traveling around the country.
He thinks that of all the people who are susceptible to some nut, you are probably more than anybody except Hillary Wallace.
And he would like reception from all of you.
the full Secret Service protection.
And I'm calling to tell you that, and it's available to you.
And it'll be available as of tonight if you want it to.
And you wait for the city, and we'll offer it to you.
It's there.
So you don't have to ask for it.
That's the point I'm making.
And so he wanted you to know that, and I wanted you to know that.
And the president was very thoughtful about it.
And actually, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it before he did.
He called me.
We heard it and got real big.
Fine.
I'll get you your seat if you're cheaper.
I'll let it fall on you.
Are you at home now?
We will announce it here at the present moment.
Well.
All right, what do you want to do?
And I think now that it's done, we don't want to do it without you knowing it.
We don't want to do it.
We'll keep you full of dirt.
I think you're going to go to hell.
It's very frankly, I don't know that they can save you, but.
But it was a damn good chance that good son of a gun came up.
And I said, you ought not to be reluctant about it.
And I know you're not akin to some of that.
So you're exposed.
And I've known it all along.
And I damn good without it.
So we were claiming the trust that you were very strongly about it.
And you can tell the press that we insisted that you take it.
But I didn't.
All right.
All right.
Well, you did all right.
All right, that's fine.
And obviously we're going to do whatever you want to do, but we just want you to know, we don't want you to be in a position of asking for anything, and you're not.
Okay?
Thank you, Ted.
All right, sir.
Thank you.
Well, the Secretary of Commerce called .
Yeah.
The thing about this sort of thing that everybody knows is it's contagious.
It's like the old question.
One guy takes a bottle, then somebody else takes a bottle.
See, that's why it has to be.
If we can't have this fall's blood in our hands, it's conscious.
This is the problem.
Now all the others on
Well, no, I'm not McCartney.
But you talk to Rousey and the other side.
We might put two or three of them.
Just the three of them.
I'll say the others in case anybody else.
The others don't.
Just very shortly.
That's all you need.
And Jackson.
I'm going to read this statement.
SECRETARY KERRY, Yes, sir.
The President has ordered that she be given protection.
You can put out a statement on her.
You can put out a statement from the Treasury over there to the President.
He called it.
Oh, I can't believe it.
I just can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
I don't know if you can call over there and say, oh, yeah, it'd be 15 minutes late.
I can't do that.
I was on his way to the hospital to see Wallace, and whenever it's leaving the admission, to go to the hospital to see him.
My God, maybe I should go to the hospital.
No, no.
Tomorrow.
I think I'll have to carry on.
I just wanted to write one up, you know.
I sent my copy of that.
It's a new book.
It's so cool.
And it goes so well with me.
I can't keep going.
No, I can't.
I'll ask you.
No, I can't.
I can't.
I can't.
I can't.
I can't.
I can't.
I can't.
What can you do?
Make calls.
That's fine.
That's all.
Because you can do that.
You can announce that over here at this party.
That's all you ought to do now.
Because pretty much no way they're going to deny it.
They're going to keep your brain safe.
You can't keep it.
You can hurt the going on.
You can sell it to the other party.
Lucas is there scrubbing up to do the work, serve the operation.
Wallace has three wounds, right elbow, upper chest, lower chest.
Lower chest wound is the one we heard earlier is an abnormal one.
He pierced the liver and the spleen and the spine.
They can't tell if the spine is severed, but he is now paralyzed in the waist down.
That is now or not?
Is.
Blood pressure and pulse are holding.
Secret service agent's wound is in the neck.
The bullet lodged in his arm.
This condition is critical.
Agent, this is Lucas.
My point is, for a secret service man, that's their job.
wife and two kids.
Now, that's somebody you can talk to.
Yeah, well, in the Napa, that's likely to be lodged, wound in the neck, lodged in the jaw, in condition of death.
Humphrey's out of hospital.
Right now, the government's in the room.
They describe his condition as stable, critical, serious.
I don't know.
They're going to have him.
So...
I can't tell what happened to his spine.
Well, he obviously is doing well.
His blood pressure is good.
His heart and everything is good.
Or they would already have operated.
It would have been some time ago.
He would have had an emergency.
Yeah.
So he apparently is doing fairly well.
Excellent team about to operate.
Only one unit of blood is coming in.
So he is bleeding, Captain.
With three wounds, no bleeding.
I don't believe that.
Well, he said, obviously, please.
That's probably the question.
Yeah, that's the question.
Did you read it in Germany?
No, hell no.
I bled externally.
See, there's a hole in my chest big enough to put a baseball in.
You've got a couple good size bullets.
See, the bullet came through my chest completely.
No, I could never bring myself to read all that wonderful stuff about you.
I never did.
It just repels me so good that I never did read any of that story.
I know you're a good shot.
I've never asked anybody, but I've never talked about it.
Well, it's an interesting thing.
Well, it's an interesting thing because two things saved my life.
nearly in the proximity of a hospital, strangely enough.
But it's an incredible series.
Sometimes when you've got three minutes, I'll tell you, or five minutes, it's an incredible series of coincidences.
On timing, what happened to me, the doctor, where he was, it was an unbelievable circumstance.
A bullet came out.
or the chest, and the left hole was not as big as a fist, but about as big as a baseball.
Almost to the top of that cub.
But the magnetic pulled me over in her lap.
Pulled me down in the hole.
And I crumpled.
And this closed up the hole.
Otherwise, you try to breathe through this hole.
See, it slipped my lung, just like you cut it with a knife.
Cut my lung right in two.
You weren't moving forward.
No.
And the doctor who operated on me is one of the pioneers of thoracic surgery in the United States of America.
He had just come back about a month or two before from Afghanistan, where he'd been for 18 months.
He was driving down Harry Hines Boulevard, parallel to the freeway, Simmons Freeway.
He saw this open limousine driving down that freeway at about 100 miles an hour at an incredible speed.
He knew something was wrong.
He was five minutes in the hospital or less.
He wasn't even on duty.
He happened to be on duty.
Did you know that?
No, I didn't know that.
But 25 years later, he knew something was up, so he immediately rushed to the hospital.
And immediately walked in and started operating in the emergency room.
He went right to you?
Came right to me, not to the President, because he was dead.
Oh, yeah, I knew it.
Mr. President, I knew he was dead before I became unconscious.
I was lying down on Nellie's lap like this, and she had her head on top of me, and I had my eyes open, and I heard that bullet hit his head.
And immediately there was brain matter.
Hell, I know brain matter.
It was all over the car.
Chunks of brain as big as the end of my thumb.
Blood, brain tissue, and I knew he was dead.
There couldn't be any possible way he could live.
Anyway, then I blanked out and came to the hospital.
But this doctor was one of the two pioneers of thoracic surgery in the United States, 25 years before.
All over in the war, he operated on chest wounds.
And that's what I had.
And he said, if you hadn't crumbled, you might have suffocated.
Because in the battlefields, we used to stick a hat or a shirt or anything in the chest wound, just to close it, to keep them from breathing, from trying to breathe through the
chest you don't get any air in the oxygen in the bloodstream so secondly if you hadn't been said sure immediately and said you were bleeding so profusely if you've been over five if you've been five minutes for the hospital he's bled to death so i'm a lucky fella crazy damn assassin
Did you, did anybody let her go?
I got to get over to Maddie.
She's over at home with us for 15 years.
Give me just a second.
I want to tell her to come over and I'll meet her over here.
Yeah, why don't you go on here?
I'll be there about a quarter after anyway.
She's at the office now.
I'll just meet her.
John?
Yes?
Why don't you have her just meet you here?
Well, that's what I thought I'd do.
Just tell her to come over and I'll meet her at the diplomatic center.
Good.
Oh, yeah.
Fine.
Great.
You know what I mean?
From Afghanistan, where he'd been for 18 months, he was driving down Harry Hines Boulevard parallel to the freeway, Simmons Freeway.
He saw this open limousine driving down that freeway at about 100 miles an hour at incredible speed.
He knew something was wrong.
He was five minutes in the hospital or less.
He wasn't even on duty.
He happened to be on duty.
Did you know that?
No, I didn't know that.
But 25 years later, he knew something was up, so he immediately rushed to the hospital.
and immediately walked in and started operating in the emergency room.
He came right to you?
He came right to me, not to the person, because he was dead.
Oh, yeah, I knew it.
Mr. President, I knew he was dead before I became unconscious.
I was lying down in Nellie's lap like this, and she had her head on top of me, and I had my eyes open, and I heard that bullet hit his head.
And immediately it was brain matter.
Hell, I know brain matter.
It was all over the car.
Chunks of brain as big as the end of my thumb.
Blood, brain tissue, and I knew he was dead.
There couldn't be any possible way he could live.
Anyway, then I flanked out and came to the hospital.
But this doctor was one of the two pioneers of thoracic surgery in the United States.
25 years before, all during the war, he operated on chest wounds.
And that's what I had.
And he said, if you hadn't crumbled, you might have suffocated.
Because in the battlefields, we used to stick a hat or a shirt or anything in the chest just to close it, to keep them from breathing, from trying to breathe through the chest.
You don't get any air in the oxygen in the bloodstream.
He said, secondly, if you hadn't been, he said, sure, immediately.
And he said, you were bleeding so profusely, if you'd been over, if you'd been five minutes more to the hospital, you'd have bled to death.
So, I'm a lucky fellow.
Crazy damn assassin.
Did anybody let her go this time?
I've got to get over to Maddie.
She's over at home.
There's 15 here.
Just give me just a second.
I'm going to tell her to come over and I'll meet her over here.
Yeah, why don't you go on here?
I'll be there about a quarter after.
She's at the office and I'll be meeting her.
John?
Yes?
Why don't you have her just meet you here?
Well, that's what I thought I'd do is tell her to come over and I'll meet her for the diplomatic session.
Good.
Oh, yeah.
Fine.
Great.