Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 858-005
Date: Friday, February 16, 1973 at 11:59 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.; Shultz, George P.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/858-005

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:03] He wants to go next week.
[0:07] Next week he's just gonna burst out on us.
[0:14] No, he wants to go and he'll just go.
[0:20] So you need a decision on this, how soon?
[0:26] Well, I don't know.
[0:31] Well, I mean, they all have a lot of fun in that building.
[0:43] That's the interesting thing, isn't it?
[0:48] Down there.
[0:49] They need to have a little, you know, kind of function.
[0:54] It's good for the field and the whole world out there.
[0:59] We'd rather go back to the miserable apartments and talk about it.
[1:03] Very good for Brennan for this coming year.
[1:06] So he's had enough to go on down there.
[1:08] Yeah, I know.
[1:08] It was great.
[1:09] Yeah.
[1:10] And he'll continue saying this.
[1:12] What does, what do we need to know about the, about shooting with Brennan?
[1:18] He'll be on the plane.
[1:19] John will be on too.
[1:21] So if you, if you work on this.
[1:22] I'll tell him that.
[1:24] I spent four hours with him yesterday.
[1:28] And I think he feels a little bit better about his personnel situation.
[1:33] We've gone through different names and placed them around him.
[1:38] And he feels at least he's in action.
[1:40] And he's seeing some good people.
[1:43] And he has a way of communicating.
[1:46] The only question I would raise is, could we have kind
[2:00] Check out.
[2:33] Well, if we get his slate, I'd like him to come see what happened to me, you know.
[2:36] Well, he's here.
[2:36] He had a two-piece on him.
[2:37] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[2:38] Come on, come on, come on.
[2:39] No, when he gets his slate, oh, he doesn't need to wait.
[2:41] He ought to get his undersecretary right now.
[2:43] He's got it.
[2:44] Well, we have an idea now.
[2:45] If I try to ask him to be with us, he's going to have to look at it.
[2:48] I don't know.
[3:14] Uh, did you guys know that I run into you at the meeting?
[3:16] Yeah.
[3:17] That went, that went well.
[3:20] It's, it's very, uh, it's a personal, uh, feeling for you.
[3:24] It was only when I knew that on Monday that I decided to do what everybody else was doing.
[3:31] I just thought it was excellent.
[3:46] I don't know what you, uh, are thinking.
[3:51] Congress be willing to give the president authority.
[3:57] We've got it through.
[3:59] We've got it through.
[4:00] We've got it through.
[4:01] We've got it through.
[4:03] We've got it through.
[4:06] We've got it through.
[4:08] We've got it through.
[4:29] He's a He's a He's a He's a He's a He's a He's a He's a He's a
[4:51] He just sort of spoke to me on the side and said, now, is the president going to do anything about tax reform?
[5:02] What's he want now?
[5:02] He doesn't know what he wants.
[5:04] He wants reform.
[5:05] He said, I read about a sign I was saying that there's no money in it.
[5:10] He said, that's not the point.
[5:12] If we can do something that makes people see that everybody's paid, well, that's actually going to be taxed.
[5:19] He said, we're taxed.
[5:23] All right.
[5:37] Uh, this business on the, uh, the back part of the H is, uh, you know, if you want to just say, look here, first of all, and we all shut up.
[5:47] This little judgment, do we see what it is?
[5:50] Uh, second, do you agree with this level?
[5:52] Is that what the whole curtain is saying?
[5:55] Uh, I'm confident that, uh, no domestic program will be shortchanged until it's off.
[5:58] Excuse me to say that, but... Yeah, right.
[5:59] You said it.
[5:59] And you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you
[6:39] Well, you better not say that.
[6:40] That's Martha Rogers who said it.
[6:42] She would have put that in front of the church.
[6:49] People ought to be able to see it.
[6:50] And also that our great investments in Japan and Germany pay off.
[6:54] We have a peaceful Japan and a peaceful Germany.
[6:57] And they're beating their heads up, aren't they?
[7:01] And they're beating their heads up, aren't they?
[7:04] That was our message.