Conversation 776-015

On September 14, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Frank L. Rizzo, John G. Carlson, White House photographer, John D. Ehrlichman, and Kenneth R. Cole, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:02 pm to 12:45 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 776-015 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 776-15

Date: September 14, 1972
Time: 12:02 pm - 12:45 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Frank L. Rizzo, Anthony Zecca, Paul Klieman, Anthony Cortegene,
Joseph O'Neill, Vincent Furlong, John Field, Donna Agnew, Nora Kramer, Marilyn M. Scott,
Louis Farrar, Robert Anatasia, Anthony Longo, Steven Kapustiak, Michael McPoyle, Nelson
Ramirez, John Sims, and John G. Carlson.

[The White House photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting.]

             Greetings and introductions
                 -Longo
                 -Sims

             [Photograph session]
                 -Logistics

                                        (rev. Oct-06)

             Photograph
                 -Copies

             Press

             Philadelphia
                 -Clothier
                 -Benjamin Freeman

             Presentation of petition
                 -[Photograph session]

John D. Ehrlichman, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr. and members of the press entered at 12:13 pm.

             Introduction of members of the press
                  -Andrew Mitchell
                      -KYW
                  -Fred Hamilton
                      -Philadelphia Bulletin
                  -Norm Pasco
                  -Max Williams
                      -KYW-TV
                  -Howie Meyer
                      -Daily news
                      -Channel 10-TV
                  -Unknown woman

             Washington Redskins

             Presentation of gifts
                 -Members of the press
                 -Cufflinks

             White House decorations
                -Presidential seal
                     -Rug
                     -Flag
                -Painting
                     -Unknown British artist
                     -Potomac River
                -State gifts

                                        (rev. Oct-06)

                     -Mexican president
                 -Trees
                 -Walter H. Annenberg
                     -Steuben glass
                     -Philadelphia Inquirer

             Parting remarks
                  -Rizzo
                  -White House tour
                  -Unknown person

Members of the Philadelphia Police Athletic League, Carlson, members of the press, and the
White House photographer left at 12:16 pm.

             Photograph
                 -Tom Fox
                     -Ehrlichman and Cole

             Election 1972
                 -Rally for George S. McGovern
                      -Mary Jo Kopechne
                 -Newspaper column author
                      -[Thomas] Woodrow Wilson

             Philadelphia
                 -Revenue sharing
                 -Nelson A. Rockefeller
                      -New York
                 -Pledge of Administration aid
                      -Announcement of aid
                          -Ehrlichman
                          -Timing
                 -Rizzo support for the President
                      -The President's Philadelphia electoral outlook
                      -Milton J. Shapp
                      -John R. Bunting, Jr.
                          -Support for McGovern
                          -International Exposition
                          -Opposition to the President
                          -Rizzo
                          -Richard Bond
                          -Everly Murphy

                           (rev. Oct-06)

             -Annenberg
             -Philadelphia treasury funds
             -Philadelphia Inquirer
                  -Harry Karafin
                      -Jail term
                      -First Pennsylvania Bank
    -First Pennsylvania Bank
         -Possible administration actions
         -Ehrlichman
         -Cole
         -Tax information
             -Bunting tax returns
             -George P. Shultz
                  -Federal funds
             -Bunting
                  -Assistance to Shapp
                      -McGovern
                  -Chairman of citzens' committee
                  -McGovern
                  -Xerox
                      -Support for McGovern
                      -Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
                           -General Services Administration [GSA]
                                -International Business Machines [IBM]
                                -Xerox
                      -Xerox General Manager
                      -Philadelphia business law firms

Presentation of gift
    -Cole

Pledge of White House aid to Philadelphia

Forthcoming presidential election
    -McGovern
        -Rockefeller
        -The President's campaign strategy
            -Presidential duties and responsibilities
    -The President's schedule
        -Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
        -Texas
            -Democrats for Nixon

                          (rev. Oct-06)

            -High school visit

The President's schedule
    -Advantages of incumbency
        -Rizzo’s view
    -Campaign tactics

McGovern’s visit to Philadelphia
   -City Hall site event
       -Hecklers
       -Chappaquiddick
       -Kennedy
       -Shapp
       -Philadelphia police commissioner
           -Joseph O'Neill

Forthcoming presidential election
    -The President's Philadelphia votes
        -Lack of blacks' support
        -Jewish vote
            -Rizzo's Jewish support
            -Vietnam War
            -Israel
                 -The President’s policy
    -McGovern
        -Television interview in Philadelphia
        -Larry Kane
        -Support for Israel
            -Invasion of Israel
            -Ground troop commitment
        -McGovern stance on Navy
            -Vietnam withdrawal
        -Television interview in Philadelphia
            -Kane
            -Shapp's effect on McGovern campaign
            -Rizzo support
        -Campaign literature
            -Rizzo’s actions
    -McGovern campaign
        -Kennedy appearance
        -Effect on results
        -Cole

                                    (rev. Oct-06)

                  -McGovern programs
                       -Kennedy
              -Nixon-McGovern debate
                  -Possibility of debate
                       -Public comments
              -McGovern's program
                  -Troops in Thailand
                  -Welfare program
                  -Homosexual marriage
                  -Rizzo’s comments
                       -Rizzo's police experience
                       -Socialism compared with free enterprise
                  -Jay Lovestone’s view
                       -Meany
                       -Sources of McGovern’s support
              -McGovern voting record
                  -Revenue sharing vote
                  -Effect on Philadelphia
              -Support for the President
                  -Joseph Alioto
                       -Bid for Governor
                       -Revenue sharing bill
                            -Signing ceremony
                                -Alioto’s attendance
                       -Mayors conference
                       -Support for the President

          Mayors conference
             -John V. Lindsay
                  -Rockefeller
                      -Joke

          Rizzo’s comments on Thomas F. Eagleton’s withdrawal

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 8m 16s     ]

                                        (rev. Oct-06)

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

*****************************************************************

              Rizzo
                  -John Cardinal Krol
                      -The President's wishes
                  -Previous remarks

Rizzo et al. left at 12:45 pm.

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.

All right.
All right.
Now, these are the boys that will be coming through your main platter.
Okay, like, you're the main one.
Okay, I'm going to put this thing in my mouth.
You can hear it.
I don't think that's right.
All right.
Thank you very much.
You've got to go through everybody's face.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
I guess my phone's still about to go down.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Do you have a light please?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
uh uh
Thank you.
We'll get about...
Okay, there you are.
All of them are being trafficked.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Now for the, for all the challenges here.
That's all.
The ruts are redone, of course, in about every three or four years.
And this is a picture of the White House 15th library of a hundred years ago.
One of the memories is quite close to the house.
Then it had to be desolated.
What we do is we put here and then get from state gas stations to active president or whatever you want to call it.
And the military, sir, our military, sir, military, sir, our war degree, uh, yeah, that's from, uh, from the U.S.
There's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no,
Well, we wish you all well, and we appreciate the good work you're doing.
Thank you.
We're proud of your city.
We're proud of your state and your country.
We're very proud of you.
You're a young people.
You're going to make it.
You're being an awful lot of your mayor.
You're a strong man.
You're a strong man.
You've already hit him, don't you?
I don't know how he is.
I don't know how much money he has.
I don't know how much money he's going to raise.
I don't know how much money he has.
I don't know how much money he has.
I don't know how much money he has.
I don't know how much money he has.
I don't know how much money he has.
I don't know how much money he has.
Good luck.
Yeah, that's not, yeah, I got it, I got it.
Great, we are, yeah.
Right, we're, right, we're, oh, well, thank you, that's fine, it's great, I'll, you know, we're, yeah, well, we're delighted to have you, and we'd be proud of the work you're doing, and we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're,
All right, fine.
Uh, let me begin by saying that I am impressed
I've read over the stuff regarding the city, Frank, and I have told, uh, I told her it wasn't an hard one.
It's a rock bar that's been here today, and, you know, it's, uh, America, I feel like, uh, your nice little rock bar don't take it all.
It's gonna have some left.
But we want to help every way we can, and every way the law requires, and John's particularly pleased to me that he can.
He made a $100 million announcement before the election.
We can't get there.
We think that we can get over $190,000.
What I think would be good for you is to make an announcement of a big problem.
We're going to do that today with him, Mr. President.
And Ken and I, Mr. John, we want to be very helpful, Mr. President.
Every day, we'll have something to say about the election.
And we'll be able to do that.
We're going to be able to do that.
Thank you.
Well, what about the, uh, I know that they didn't really do anything at all, but if you're not going to do anything at all, there's a couple of them in Mississippi, and I'll talk to you later on about them after the election is over.
There's a couple of them in Mississippi, and we've got their, yes, their staff is one of them.
Well, I don't have to know.
And we've got a nice president who will write you down the name of John Trump.
Yep.
Who?
John, my first Pennsylvania fan.
What's he do?
Oh, he's McDonough all the way.
How did that come about?
Was he a Republican?
He's a Democrat.
I don't believe he's ever been a Republican, but he's vicious.
He's the one doing the international expo, you know, and that's unfortunately what happened.
And we had it pretty well settled with the press.
And we got out pretty grateful, but he never let us forget it.
He said some amazing things about you, and I took him on publicly.
Last year, he had a private cocktail party with the government.
Eight people showed up.
I talked to Dick Bond, and I talked to, uh, and I talked to the ambassador, and they have a lot of money in his bank.
Uh, they're only joking.
That's exactly why we have our stuff, about $8 million worth of city money.
Uh, that's coming out.
Uh, they took our money, uh, they're to advise us, and they don't advise us much.
Uh, with no interest, and they touched our money, so you're gonna blow that $8 million.
And, uh, working on the work outfit.
This scoundrel taking the election over, Mr. President, deserves a good looking interview.
He's going to be doing something wrong.
They had an inquiry report about him on Harry Tarabin, who is now in jail.
Who is in jail?
He blackmailed his first Pennsylvania back in June with $1,000 a week for PR.
So if they were paying this scoundrel $1,000 a week, that doesn't kill you.
Is that true or not?
There wasn't any blackmailers in the field who didn't want to take it, you know.
They wanted to tell us something about their operations, and he was going to make it public, and he just didn't do it.
But there's a, I guess there's something there.
And what we'll get, and I'll remind Ken Cole, I have this all over, and John, you know, I want to know about that.
But, John, there's another way.
I want to know what he did.
Patrick, you're up to a call.
Right away.
There's some of the bases over there, uh, in Elkville, and I want, I want Schultz to check to see what we have, and really, it's never a problem.
I thought, like, what the hell was he talking about?
The list is, the list is, the list is gone.
That's it.
He must be the guy who wants to see Jackson, right?
Right after he left.
Yeah.
He went up there, and he's always just, uh, he's always getting money.
He made a statement to go out of it and be a chef.
They had to let him.
He's a bad, bad guy.
Did he vote you as a man?
Yes.
Why haven't I ever heard of this guy?
Well, he showed up at a school by the name of Black.
No, no, that's exactly right.
This is what I told the staff.
I gave order to remove all these zeroes.
I got a call from the general manager of Neurox the next day.
And he wanted to know from me whether or not I did this because of his air position with the government.
I said, oh no, he just put out a bad copy.
He's got a machine that does a better job.
And I called some of the top business guys and told them, here's some of the top law firms.
And I asked them to get rid of their gear.
The only language they understand is the president has something else to do.
I was just trying to understand.
I gave him the command to get the gear and he backed off.
I know this duty sent me through the mail.
I appreciate that.
You know, let me tell you something.
I can't watch you for the next one.
I don't know if you can watch me.
We want to do the other thing we want to do.
We want to do this in a way.
I understand your feeling is that we should let the government do the work.
You know, on the road, you know, I mean, a lot of my...
I talked to Rocky about it before, and I... You know, I...
I...
I...
I...
I...
I...
I...
I...
I...
That's all I'm going to do at the moment.
The following day, I'm going to go to the library.
And until about the 15th of October, I'm just going to be doing that.
You're an actor already.
Why don't you get out?
I'm sorry.
No, Mr. President.
I have to.
I have to.
I want you to do this, Mr. President.
I don't want to go out.
You're an actor.
And you have to.
If you walk out, you're going to go out the same place, too.
I'm going to do it at my campaign.
I tell them, Kent, that they wanted me to come out and swing, which was my natural instinct to do.
And I knew that they wanted the states and all.
I did a lot myself in my office, and I'd swing and curse the world.
And if you don't want to go out, I didn't go out.
Is that right?
Absolutely.
And they want you to do it, Mr. President.
And in my humble opinion, I'm not a businessman politician.
But don't do it, Mr. President.
This guy looks so much like me.
How did he do it?
We did it deliberately.
They wanted 15th and Chestnut.
That's right there across City Hall.
So I called the police commissioner and I said, no, we're not going to give you 15th and Chestnut.
We'll give them Bruin and Sexton.
And when I say boom, people went from all over the state to all hares, creeps.
It was awful.
And we had people with signs there, Shackletwitty, Shackletwitty, and the guys in Dollsburg, guys in Dollsburg, guys in Dollsburg, the government Dollsburg enemy.
We had a helicopter, remember Shackletwitty, another helicopter, a six-wing plane, but they couldn't take off on the out of the box.
The next time he comes, we'll get him a workout.
He'll never forget that.
Oh, yeah.
We really get the workout.
I had a loud mouth because it was in front of mine.
It was loud to me.
Just, you know, crazy.
Every once in a while when a cop would have to go over and shout him on the night, he would order nobody to arrest him.
Now I call.
This is funny.
I got to get a message from the police.
I said, a pleasant list of police radio.
It's just a fine spot.
So I got the commissioner to call his office and call me.
I said, yo, yo, let's just take the street and block all the traffic.
All these people are trying to go home, you know, at 5 o'clock.
They ought to back up to 10 miles.
I let them in, block the street, and all these guys came home from work, and I know they're here this morning on the radio.
Rats.
I don't know.
Are they?
Because they're sitting in one of these country stands.
Stand up.
Wait.
Mr. President, we're not necessarily going to win the war.
It's going to be the first time.
The only area you're going to lose, Mr. President, are the black areas.
Right.
And I lost every one of them.
I lost two.
Four of them, Mr. President.
Four of them.
I was next in the land a couple of weeks on his side.
He was going to help me.
He was going to help me.
That's what I'm right for.
The black area was part of my situation.
Oh, my God.
I got five of them on the Jewish community, Mr. President.
See, their economy is not little anymore.
They've been shot and killed by small businessmen, and the war is more important to them than Israel, and quite so is Israel.
Well, we're on the right path.
Watch how, since tonight, I would say, it is a lagging game that the President is going to enter into a government.
Lagging game.
I just want to answer this strictly, can't do this room until it is here.
I just want to answer the governor's question.
If his mule was invaded, Senator McDonnell would he commit ground troops to protect it?
Good question.
He can't answer that one, Mr. President.
He said he would.
We'll make him meet the amount.
He said he would.
How do you explain that?
How do you get there?
Where?
Right.
If you get better than 80.
Right.
If they're even bigger than that, I don't get that.
He can't say he wants out of Vietnam.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah, I came up with that.
I guess it's crazy.
He's gonna be asking about his last name.
Either way, he's gonna give us some.
He's gonna ask us a jack of liabilities.
You know, this is a government.
Jack of liabilities.
Let him answer that one.
He's gonna ask, why won't Lizzo support you?
We're gonna just wait until he gets over here, but we have some tricks.
We have some throwouts that we're manufacturing in our secret print press.
We're going to give that bomb a workout about a week before the election.
He'll never forget.
I'm going to ask you this.
If you don't feel that you've run around the country, you wouldn't respond to this.
I said yesterday, last evening, and I'm going to get on this starting today.
I want to know, I told Kenny Cole, I hired two analysts.
If they ever asked about whether or not the president was supposed to debate McGovern, they said what the country needs is a debate between McGovern
He would never be naked.
But I hate himself because he's been right.
He's been on both sides of the, whether he's been at truth or not, whether he's going to have $1,000 a person or $4,000 a man, you know, whatever.
What did he do?
What did he do?
I didn't think yesterday enough.
He wants homosexuals in Miami.
I give him a little shot.
I said, I love him.
He wants homosexuals to get married.
I said, is this basic, being a retired policeman, that he wants to make everything that's legal illegal, and everything that's illegal legal?
So I said, you know, and I said, you know, there's no, I said, this is a good job.
I said, you know, the voters have a clear-cut choice here to make.
They want to vote for socialism or free enterprise.
You said that?
Well, I said, well, what do you say?
All right, all right.
And I want to keep on saying, I think this guy is a happy, I'm positive he's a happy.
You don't care about him?
It doesn't really mean he's a cop or a water cop.
He's a subway cop.
He's a fireman.
But he's a doctor.
He's a cop.
He doesn't do that.
He says he's got support.
Very, very bad story.
That's what came up in all of that.
Here's a high-level narrative story.
When he was up there blocking your traffic, he showed that you're voting for refugees here.
Right.
And that means they'll be on $1,000,000 for Philadelphia's money.
Yeah, so that's what I'm trying to say.
I'm trying to turn the value of it around.
Mr. President, I thought I had good business.
He told me that.
Very nice.
And he told me this.
I'm trying to get him to come out publicly for it.
I know him real well.
He said, Frank, I can't.
He said, I'm going to run for governor here.
He said, but I'll tell you this.
When the rest of your chair and bill is passed, if the president invites some of us mayors down, I will.
He'll come.
He'll come and he'll make a statement.
And I said, Bill, I'll be right behind you to make that statement.
And we'll be.
He said, I'll let you go over some of this with the mayor's John Mueller camp with the country.
So, you know, we'd like your advice.
I'm not going to have that bad record.
I will not have it.
You agree?
Why should we have that record?
Well, I just offered to let the mayor and the mayor of the city.
You know, they came on and said, I want to get the other day.
I got a guy like him.
And you saw him on the other day?
Yes, sir.
Did he come to that event?
That's right.
That's the story that he heard.
He wasn't throwing it.
No.
Well, he said that he was throwing it.
I can't believe that he threw it and saw him throwing it around.
To the effect that the picture in 1976 was going to be Kennedy and he moved it.
And, uh, yeah.
And it's going to be waterproofed chocolate.
I mean, they asked me about how he was going to throw it.
I was more interested in reading it.
I said, nobody's going to say anything about it.
Thank you a lot.
That'd be great.