Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 935-014
Date: Monday, June 11, 1973 at 12:40 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/935-014

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] You did the breaking today?
[0:05] Yeah, I wanted to go to the field.
[0:07] They're concentrating on different things.
[0:11] Vietnam, the Brezhnev trip, a lot of it on the economy.
[0:15] And I said that you had not made a decision yet, but you were consulting with me about that.
[0:20] If you said that, Florida, you were expecting to have something to say at some point, I didn't want to predict when it would be.
[0:26] So we'll get a little build-up on that.
[0:27] I would get this one from you, sir.
[0:30] I didn't even say that in my sentence.
[0:33] We can say that maybe after the...
[0:35] I said the purpose of the session is to labor management.
[0:38] People were still consulting with me.
[0:40] Then we went to, it's good to have someone, have them ask questions about something else.
[0:51] We went to a Q&A on the phone call, which I just handled for it, right?
[0:57] I said, my impression is wrong.
[0:59] But I said, the relevant fact is that this is personal insurance that I have received.
[1:03] And that the president had received, in this case, my impression was that the president talked incorrectly.
[1:07] It was my error on the impression.
[1:09] I was not told that.
[1:11] And apparently the only difference was that the assurances that the president received again on that thing came by way of Bob.
[1:18] So that was not a heated briefing.
[1:20] And I sensed a different tone there.
[1:22] I think they sensed a shifting of it and so forth.
[1:34] Not a question about it.
[1:39] No, not a question about it. .
[1:59] I just didn't let me respond because I don't want to respond just with a, with a, I think, I think, well, I think today, the conversation I had this morning, and the breathing tone,
[2:29] that there is a shifting beginning to take place, a shifting beginning to take place.
[2:34] And it's certainly reflected and being reflected in a lot of the columns, which is, yeah, I'm sorry, I thought you could get it poorly, but certainly in the columns, absolutely in the columns.
[2:47] I see a very, very definite shift in the columns, absolutely.
[2:51] Yes, sir.
[2:54] I don't think he'll whack the president, do you?
[3:06] No.
[3:16] You never saw him?
[3:17] No, I didn't know him.
[3:19] Oh, he did say, though, that he was trolled by Alderman and that the president wanted this or that or the other thing.
[3:24] That's the kind of thing they could say.
[3:26] It's not true, of course.
[3:28] It's totally not true.
[3:32] That's the kind of thing that's really a shocking thing that rounded you out.
[3:37] The church is against the president.
[3:42] I was trolled by Alderman.
[3:48] He did not tell you in the 21st that he had any prior knowledge of the water.
[3:55] He denied that.
[4:07] But he didn't tell me about the- Didn't he inform that he had- Or the vans.
[4:14] But he was involved.
[4:16] Except that he had a bet and had a, I don't know if it was a guy or somebody or something like that.
[4:23] But on the 26th, you had clearly personal assurances, as we've seen, that he had no personality disorder.
[4:34] Absolutely.
[4:37] Well, I guess he still maintains that in the technical sense.
[4:42] Yep.
[4:42] Basically, that he hadn't thought that he had any means, but he did not make it an improvement.
[4:51] He told me that he had no prior knowledge on .
[4:56] My own .
[4:57] There they are.
[4:58] I certainly know that.
[5:00] He said there's a legacy analysis.
[5:07] 17th of March, or the 20th, I don't know which month, but he said, there is not a single one of the veterans, that was the word he used, I remember it was like that, linking anybody in the White House to the Y89, not a single one of the veterans.
[5:29] His latest one, the 28th.
[5:30] He wanted it first.
[5:32] Yeah.
[5:33] He needed it later.
[5:34] No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[6:05] Well, let me say, we spent, I think, an awful lot of time in this room.
[6:16] You may worry about me.
[6:28] We should work, but we're to be prepared.
[6:30] But my gosh, Ron, he has put a salvo on us.
[6:34] A lot of good weed for a truck.
[6:43] A lot of bucks.
[6:46] A million dollar charge.
[6:48] Imagine he tells me that I'm being paid a million dollars a week.
[6:56] You can't imagine asking me, like, where does this thing leave?
[7:00] What would it cost?
[7:02] Which I, for the next second, can't do it.
[7:09] That's right.
[7:09] Can't do it.
[7:09] Because, well, it seems real hard in two respects.
[7:12] One, because of the lack of time at all.
[7:14] And two, because if you pay the $50,000, I'll get a third.
[7:17] Well, two degrees is how I can get it in the sky.
[7:20] Which, you know, I mean, you could have a third.
[7:27] And the key part is clemency.
[7:29] We haven't been sent to jail in four years.
[7:31] We don't need clemency.
[7:32] And we can't give them clemency.
[7:34] I see.
[7:36] A very big explosion.
[7:36] Well, let's not borrow trouble to worry about it.
[7:41] I'm sorry?
[7:42] He has to testify again.
[7:47] The economy, in fact, won't be good.
[8:03] No, no, I'm not going to read it.
[8:35] Yes, sir.
[8:50] Well,
[9:15] I want you to be sure to get to work with whoever was the president there.
[9:22] Who was the man in charge of it?
[9:24] A fellow from ABC, the Hillman.
[9:25] Well, I can't get a picture of the other two.
[9:29] One of the officers here.
[9:30] I thought he was very crucial.
[9:32] I mean, I just thought that was unnecessary.
[9:46] Yeah, they didn't involve people who were directly involved.
[9:49] Oh, sure.
[9:49] A lot of the press was complaining about it.
[9:52] Someone said that Julie was the conscience of the evening.
[9:56] Had Julie not been there, then many people would not have realized the excess that the people went to in that particular evening.
[10:06] It was not a... Well, I thought some of the persons asked the White House for a response this year.
[10:14] Well, as I understand it, there were not direct attacks as such on the president, but there was just an over-dominance on the whole Watergate thing.
[10:35] Apparently Bob and Jenna were kicked over pretty badly.
[10:53] And then, frankly, even in the election...
[11:23] I just don't think I've ever gone for two months.
[11:31] So I just, you know, get back to work.
[11:35] I think that we're actually doing that.
[11:58] But just a thought to what we do in California.
[12:06] I told Al that the medical in California had stopped, and I probably ought to do something out there.
[12:14] And on the way back to Washington, I should do something.
[12:19] I think we should have a few options open, but I wouldn't get, if I had to commit to anything right now, I don't know what's the very reason.
[12:28] We've got to see how, if that's the very point of the computer being all of an early one thing, I think we should walk right into the eye of that document.
[12:39] I think we just got to let it run through.
[12:42] I agree.
[12:43] I didn't know what this one was saying.
[12:47] I don't know what you're talking about.
[12:54] I don't think he just tried to go out there and get away with it.
[12:57] The leader followed the track.
[12:58] He didn't go anywhere else other than let them bag us around and we'll be out in California walking the beach.
[13:04] Then we'll come up.
[13:06] We'll come up and we do come up for the swimming track.
[13:10] See, when this rancher finally dies, that's when I have to press him.
[13:15] So your information, I'm not going to give it to him until it comes up, which I have not received in the present time.
[13:31] So I'm not going to discuss it on the matter of indictment.
[13:33] The rights are involved.
[13:34] It would be impromptu to comment on it in any way, shape, or form.
[13:37] Does anybody have a comment?
[14:03] Thank you.
[14:24] I'm not going to discuss it in any manner.
[14:26] I don't think the rights are involved.
[14:27] It would be improper to comment on it in any way, shape, or form.
[14:31] Is there a mic?