Nixon & Haldeman on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Press Relations

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See, the plan is for you to meet with them ahead of time.

And, uh...

I think it shows what happens though on the that's probably something it's not television they said television was bad television was basically good part of what bothered them and part of what they're covering out what the hell is it one of them

I guess Simple did it yesterday in the Times.

What's bothering him is that it's the same thing.

We set up kind of a Simple-solve-a-pattern that we're using, and he said, you know, to obviously plan a thing where they do what McGovern would call a visual at the start of the day to force television coverage of the event they want.

that they don't want anybody to notice uh so late at night that nobody does notice it and uh isn't part of it just the fact that the press at this point is terrified that the whole proposition is going to basically has got to tear down from now on i think we're going to have a very shaky press i think we are and i think just

I suppose we have to understand that at times you've got to do exactly what they tell us all not to do.

We don't have to shake what the press tells us.

Exactly.

I've got to be the day when the press doesn't cover the presidential election.

But we've covered all this crap up for years.

Well, that's the other point.

For years!

The answer here is, and that's McGregor's line all the time, and it's very good.

Read the papers.

The Nixon policy is absolutely clear and firmly on the record.

The Nixon performance is clear and firmly on the record.

The Nixon character is clear and firmly on the record.

What do they want to know?

Now, what do you want to know?

The worst thing I'd like to do, the way I think they react, is look at you.

As I've often said, whenever the press reacts bigger when you've lost, we've got to remember they're against us.

And I think that they're very effective.

They realize it was very good on them.

In fact, because the local reaction is apparently very good.

In fact, if you mean like San Francisco, New York,

So that's the other point.

They're judging, as in a sense they have to do, they're judging the whole campaign by the fundraising swing, which was a monster chore.

the least damage possible.

Well, that's why I'm glad we're putting off the motorcade a week.

I'd like to get a radio speech in before the motorcade.

Right.

I think we ought to shoot for that.

You've got to tell Ray the office has to, right?

You might even get two of them.

I mean, we don't need to wait all that length of time if he's got the right.

The other thing you might do,

I don't know.

I'm thinking about it, so if you want to consider just to do an office press thing.

I thought about them, because right now, they would all be negative when you go to that office and do all this bullshit.

I wouldn't get into that, but they'll all be for it.

This is something we ought to consider our own viewpoint.

It might just be something that's just as popular beyond belief.

I mean, you have to want to make it in terms of if we just don't want them constantly saying, well, they never said anything.

You don't want to have the press conference on the road.

That's for damn sure.

That would be a mistake.

You don't know the right story.

You can't control it.

I have no idea.

I wonder if that would be regarded as...

The point is that we had one a month ago.

I'm not particularly for it.

I'm slightly against it.

But you could say we had one a month ago and we have one now.

That'd be a lot about the end of it.

Yeah, I wouldn't answer those.

But you see, I don't know what we thought of that time.

What, do it mid-week next week before I'm done?

No, I'd do it this week.

Thursday, no.

Thursday or Tuesday.

No, I think I'd rather do it just about the same evening.

I think you maybe want to do it before that, in the sense that McGovern is going to, either on the 9th or 10th, have a big Vietnam speech.

He's supposed to have a Vietnam peace plan tomorrow.

But the, what he's trying to do, October 9th was the anniversary of your press conference where you said anyone who's had four years to bring peace failed to, I'll be about five, I'm not sure, shouldn't have another chance or whatever it is.

So he's going to try to play to that anniversary.

But as of now, he's got a time slot on the 10th and not on the 9th.

The 9th is a holiday, a national holiday.

And then we have to do it next week.

I also want to do it this way.

That's right.

No, I mean, I meant this way.

You'd have to...

Isn't there something to be said not to have the press totally figuring their... Yeah, right.

You see what I mean?

We've got to realize that after they...

As much as we know, we have to use them.

And broader, of course, is the goddamned two-faced fashion set that would be accessible to the press.

What's the president going to do if we don't make it accessible

My governor isn't either.

There's a rough article in Life on him.

There's a loss of credibility this week.

What I had in mind was this, to go over the press thing.

We can knock this crap off.

We've got Thursday, Friday night on support.

You could do one quite easily on Thursday, you see what I mean?

And just take all the odds and ends about the, you could take the odds and ends about the campaign, and whining about Vietnam, about the Soviet Jew, you know, we've seen that.

There's no losers, there's no winners.

No, there's no difference.

There's really not any losers.

They're all foul.

They're not even losers in the sense that there's not any losers.

They're tough questions.

You don't have any IT&T problems.

I don't have any IT&T problems.

My view is to do it, but this time, could you tell me again, some way you could do it, not to tell the government, but every time we've gotten to this one, on the basis of who we say is preparing questions for it.

And it's been a revised reading book for the vice president.

I was thinking of other terms.

Now, we didn't, because we weren't going to help this.

What do you think?

I think it probably is.

We ought to go to the Maritime site to party.

Maritime.

That was your plan for Thursday, I think.

Is that to L.E.

or not?

That's a pretty good news story.

Well, yeah, but you want, well, your press conference will override it.

Well, that's true, but then... Yeah, all right, move it, move it.

Move the other thing, too.

Move that Joe.

All right.

American nation.

Now, move that.

Now, that's...

I think Thursday's the best day for a pod.

I think the American nation, either if you move it to Friday or move it up to Wednesday, I don't know the truth of the secret.

Sir?

All right.

Do you want to figure out going up at about 3?

It's a good time.

Okay.

But I think that the best indication that I didn't press was that they were just about to have to stir it a little bit.

Nixon & Haldeman on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Press Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 2, 1972

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