Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 725-031
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 1972 at 11:55 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); [Unknown person(s)]; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Connally, John B.; Shultz, George P.; Weinberger, Caspar W. ("Cap"); Ziegler, Ronald L.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/725-031

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[3:45:23] All this stuff just doesn't, she's not caught up in it.
[3:45:27] She isn't interested in it.
[3:45:27] That would be a problem.
[3:45:30] Well, she is interested.
[3:45:31] She's a damn direct part of it as far as politics and all that stuff.
[3:45:37] A lot more than most.
[3:46:02] You know the...
[3:46:27] All right.
[3:48:24] If these ambassadors are not here, when will they be here, do you know?
[3:48:27] Well, we just called and checked, and none of them has arrived yet.
[3:48:41] Do you want to start getting here earlier?
[3:48:42] Well, I'm afraid not.
[3:48:43] Well, these ambassadors, I think we better call and delay them, okay?
[3:48:46] The issue is that we're just going to have our residents delayed, and just delay each of them a half hour.
[3:48:53] I just think they can wait a little while.
[3:48:57] You go kind of out ahead.
[3:48:58] I don't think there's much to do about it.
[3:49:04] It's going to sound a little rude, but now we understand.
[3:49:21] Well, I think we've got a survive, Mr. Secretary.
[3:49:27] Thank you.
[3:49:28] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
[3:49:50] And I sit and they ask me, did this provide me a perfect opportunity?
[3:49:53] And it is for me to go home and campaign with my brother.
[3:49:56] I sit down with my brother and look after himself.
[3:49:59] And he's not over the left, but you might as well find out where he's at.
[3:50:04] Do they get into the politics?
[3:50:06] Oh, sure.
[3:50:07] I just said that I have no, I've told you before, that I have no political ambitions or aspirations whatsoever.
[3:50:17] I want to ask if I was going to be a candidate for vice president.
[3:50:19] I said I don't think that event would occur, and I would like to strike a date on things that I think would ever come to pass.
[3:50:27] I'm not going to withdraw from the human race or withdraw my interest in political affairs.
[3:50:31] It's been a part of my life, all of my life.
[3:50:34] It's been an obligation.
[3:50:36] I've never said it would be interesting.
[3:50:39] I've never been interested.
[3:50:40] That's about it.
[3:50:41] That was an excellent job.
[3:50:44] Really worth all of it.
[3:50:46] Mr. President, I'm very grateful for your extravagant remarks.
[3:50:51] They were extravagant.
[3:50:54] They didn't push us.
[3:50:55] They asked us to go to the Democratic Convention.
[3:50:58] No, no.
[3:50:59] We really cut it off before.
[3:51:00] They cut it off.
[3:51:00] Sarah McClendon asked a question, and I took her question.
[3:51:07] And many of our patients had read it before.
[3:51:09] I quite finished it.
[3:51:10] They started wholesale access from the back of the room.
[3:51:13] So it broke it up hilarious.
[3:51:16] I was mad as hell because I didn't mean to ask the question.
[3:51:22] See, Cora Mayer goes, thank you.
[3:51:25] Oh, sure.
[3:51:25] Well, we're going to screw a couple of them.
[3:51:30] I'll tell you that.
[3:51:31] I spent hours with ABC and NBC and CBS and the film.
[3:51:38] And NBC and ABC didn't run it.
[3:51:41] CBS did the next morning, about 10 minutes in.
[3:51:44] The other two kids they ran, the fella had some.
[3:51:46] So I just said, my fella came in, so he talked to the early part of me, and so he just said, I want to take this into account.
[3:52:00] I really don't think it's a conspiracy in New York.
[3:52:04] He said, I just don't want you to think that.
[3:52:07] Well, ABC came in and said the same thing.
[3:52:09] He said, Jim Donahue said, I don't want you to think that it's a conspiracy in New York.
[3:52:12] Jim said, as a matter of fact, they used those same words in different meetings.
[3:52:16] In this meeting, there was no conspiracy.
[3:52:18] And I said, well, that's fine, Jim.
[3:52:19] They'll want me before I want them.
[3:52:21] And they'll be over there today wanting to have a say in what I'm going to say.
[3:52:27] All right, great.
[3:52:29] I'm going to have one.
[3:52:30] Give one to me.
[3:52:32] I'm going to have one.
[3:52:33] I'm going to give one.
[3:52:36] Right.
[3:52:37] Oh, the rock.
[3:52:41] Oh, I guess probably we're ready to take our little struggle across.
[3:52:58] and uh say hello to the folks at the first meeting that i had with the staff of the office yeah
[3:53:28] You've got a lot of, one thing that you could, that you could be, that I promise, and totally not now, is the idea, you know, that he's going back because of Texas, and he's going back because of the wall.