Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 949 › Conversation 949-010
Nixon, Woods & Sanchez on Watergate Committee and Presidential health
Thursday, July 12, 1973 · 4:30 PM–4:46 PM ET · Oval Office · 13 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with Rose Mary Woods, Manolo Sanchez, and an unknown guest to discuss his ongoing recovery from viral pneumonia and his intense frustration regarding the Senate Watergate Committee hearings. Nixon expressed profound disapproval of Senator Howard Baker’s conduct during the hearings, declaring that Baker would no longer be welcome at the White House. Additionally, the President praised the testimony of John Mitchell and Richard Moore, contrasting their reliability with the accusations made by John Dean, and reaffirmed his administration's decision to withhold White House papers from the committee.
- Watergate Committee
- Presidential health
- John Mitchell
- Howard Baker
- John Dean
- White House documents
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Do you want me to hold it up and kiss you for a moment?
Uh... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Thank you, Mom.
The doctor said you should go home.
Yes, ma'am.
He said maybe you, you come back and not in that, put it in the Amazon.
Is it possible?
I know.
You have to sit, sit, sit, sit halfway up, but just get, you need rest now.
It's really something, Mother.
I think it's a very common case, and I guess we're going to go over it some more.
They think it's a...
Yes, sorry, it's a case of viral pneumonia, whatever the hell that is.
But it takes a lot of...
It lasts as long as a week.
They're all so far away, you see.
Oh, they look, they can't be there.
Fifteen minutes.
No, no.
From Andrews at that hour, they could be here in ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes at most.
From anywhere.
But the main thing is that you should take care of yourself.
Yeah.
I was filming, and I watched that little old man sent for you and had to get Julie for her birthday.
Pretty little now type box.
We had it in the warehouse.
Yeah, we had it for something, I forgot the name of it.
Ray's all about that thing, he watches.
Oh, no.
Okay, excellent.
Somebody told me to take it forward, you did a good job today.
He read his statement, sir.
great, and with great conviction, and very good, and he's even handling me as this terrible little arrogant... No, no, one of the juniors, the second of the various councils, or one of the, you know, the sailors.
They're all Jews.
I think he's one we fired from H.E.W.
So it's one of the best, one of the best things I think we can say we've done.
He's just a terrible looking guy.
Yeah.
How did they get him?
Dick?
I think that Dick has had him.
The first way he's trying to do it is make Dick look befuddled.
But he isn't succeeding because Dick is very good.
I think he's good.
At least I've seen a lot of him.
Dick looks so broken, honestly.
Well, I'll tell you.
John Mitchell.
To your dying day, don't ever forget that man.
I was so proud of him that I cried.
Nobody ever called him, I guess.
Nobody would get him.
Couldn't find him anywhere.
I'll get him tonight.
Well, he stood up like a man.
He said, by God, I do not ever hate the president.
And they came back to me.
They tried.
Howard Baker.
Rose, I have no hatred this time.
I have no hatred here.
You made a good life.
But I have a spirit of loyalty.
Howard Baker will never be in the White House again as long as I am in his office.
Never, never, never.
I don't say that about a lawyer.
I don't say that even about Montoya.
And I don't say it about Weicker either.
Weicker either.
Don't let him... Weicker has been, because he was mean to Mitchell.
Oh, Weicker was mean to, he was terrible.
And he's the best of anyone.
There's no other words for that Weicker that you see.
He's terrible.
But you see, they have, Howard Baker,
That little fusillade on the silver wall.
They feel like they're both putting on a show.
Putting on a show, and also at the expense of the president.
Yeah.
And they're trying to get him in, so.
Now, nobody should say this.
I got Timmons in.
He was, of course, a Brockman.
I said, no, Bill, forget this country.
Bill, this is a big brand.
Yeah, but I said, under no circumstances should there be any contact with Baker in the future.
I said, now and then, of course, you've got to put in.
He's our, feels our, he just is not right, because he even has Inouye again on the guest list.
Inouye, the scientist?
Yeah.
Why?
You can't remember anything in the guest list.
I've explained that on each of the three dinners this month.
But do get some of the lives in them.
But he does.
He does all of the common sense, doesn't he?
But the lips, I mean, you know.
So it doesn't appear that he is having the same old practices.
Well, he says he mixes them up.
I take his word for that.
But I must say, I think that Baker, Baker has all we've done for him.
He's spoken for him.
He's spoken for him.
He's been down there for the rest of his life.
But the man is so conceited.
or it's a vicious little double-talking.
They all did good things.
He didn't say anything else to that.
Well, some of them, you know, he didn't say perform anymore today.
Only one person that I heard defending everybody else about him was terrible.
And one person that I thought, thought that what he really was trying to do was make it so apparent that you didn't know.
And I said, oh, Mitchell got over to me very fast.
But I think... Howard Baker has done this.
I have been doing this.
Cold deliberation.
Look, the softballs he gave to Dean.
Plus this.
I'm not sure there was another question.
Well, sir, and I'll make...
He's looking after Howard Baker.
Yeah, that whole damn stinking committee all praised Dean for all his...
obviously someone knew that mitchell had heard from somebody and today he had to say that he had dinner with that and all and that yes he they they forced it out i said well we had a lot of mutual friends being you and me but that he was that it was their words that he was a close personal friend that he had admired you that you've been a you know an attorney he was so damn careful then he said that they have close personal friends and then you know the call i made
saying that he understood why you couldn't call him.
Did you refer to that?
They forced him.
They said they'd heard from anyone.
They said he'd had dinner with a mutual friend, Bob Aspinall, a few weeks ago.
He'd known him many, many, many years, and that, yes, he had heard of him.
He had had a call from me.
He'd spent a lot of time with good friends of his.
He'd had a call from me with Tim Dalton about what had happened in New York, and I thought that that was shut off.
But I tell you, he was, he was so, he was very...
He was so, so great that, that... And Dick Moore's statement was excellent.
John Moore is very proud of him.
Yeah, he sort of fuddled around in history.
Oh, wow.
Right.
But Dean also knows that Moore wouldn't be the type who would have written down careful notes, nor would he be such a liar as to make up false notes, which is what Dean did.
That character just made up his own notes.
But Dick Moore was so good, they asked him about him.
In one meeting where Dean says that
Moore went to New York to ask Mitchell to raise money.
That was one of Dean's... Oh, yes, LaCosta.
I wasn't there either.
No, I know you weren't.
They don't say you weren't.
But that Dean didn't know how it was anyway.
Mitchell's testimony and Moore's were so close.
Mitchell said, I have never been a fundraiser.
And Moore said, I mean before I went, that I was about to make Mitchell be a fundraiser among his New York friends.
Well, the reason they're now making this big hollaballoo about turning over the White House papers, God, they could have done this long ago, but the reason they aren't doing it, they're doing it because they know damn well they don't have anything on anybody.
Yeah.
We're not going to give him a goddamn thing.
I talked to that jackass serving home today.
He thought I didn't think I'd take the call.
I said, look, everything pleases me.
I said, hey, Senator, I'm sorry.
I talked to him.
He said, Senator, Baker and I would like to come out and talk to you about it.
I said, no, Senator, I won't do that.
He said, I'll see you alone.
So I put Baker down that way, too.
Baker will never be in this office again.
He'll never be in the White House again.
I mean it, Rose.
His name will not be on the Christmas list.
It will never, never, never be there.
If I'm anybody who doesn't have to put a name down there, a lot of people come off.
I'm going to review that myself.
I know it, Rose.
I'm not so dumb as to put them down.
I wish I could take you to go home.
Put your robe and pajamas on and go sit in the lane.
Well, I have to wait.
As a matter of fact, I'm going to the texturator around 6 to 6.30 since I need to change my pajamas and put them back in my clothesline.
I think I'll go over there.
Where are you going for the x-ray?
I don't know.
I want to get it done.
They don't want to show a damn thing.
Except for mine, I wasn't sure.
They may not show it tonight.
I feel better today than I did in the morning, better than I did last night.
They haven't taken any extra yet.
They've done everything else.
No, no.
I can tell that from the way you look.
Well, no, I don't know.
It was just a little sharpness of breath was all.
Right, and that's exactly what no one else does to you.
Because what it does is cut off part of your mouth.
Stay fine if I haven't.
You're going to hospital.
You're at God damn right.
I'm not going to sit around here.
Don't let me.
Stay fine.
The Navy one is so cold.
No, heavy, heavy.
Oh, I feel fine.
I could feel better.
Thank you.
NARA Description
On July 12, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, Manolo Sanchez, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:30 pm to 4:46 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 949-010 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 949-10
Date: July 12, 1973
Time: 4:30 pm - 4:46 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Rose Mary Woods, Manolo Sanchez, and an unknown person.
-27-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 949-10 (cont’d)
President’s schedule
-Henry A. Kissinger
The unknown person left at an unknown time before 4:46 pm.
*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1A
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 13 s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1A
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President’s schedule
-President’s health
-Woods’s suggestion
-Bed rest
-Doctor’s recommendation
-Position
Sanchez left an unknown time before 4:46 pm.
President’s health
-Prognosis
-Viral pneumonia
-Duration
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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1B
[Personal returnable]
-28-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 949-10 (cont’d)
[Duration: 1 m 27 s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1B
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President’s health
-Doctor’s visits
-Distance from White House
-Andrews Air Force Base
Gift from an unknown man
-Watch
-Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s birthday
-Malachite box
-Invitation to White House
-Potential for negative press coverage
[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Richard A. Moore’s testimony
-Daniel K. Inouye [?]
-Majority Counsel
-Jew
-Department of Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW]
-John N. Mitchell
-Forthcoming telephone call from Rose Mary Woods
-Ervin Committee testimony
-Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-President’s schedule
-Access to White House, President
-President’s schedule
-Inouye, Joseph M. Montoya
-29-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 949-10 (cont’d)
-Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
-Questioning of Mitchell
-Weicker and Baker
-Posturing
-Baker
-President’s meeting with William E. Timmons
-William E. Brock, III
-Intelligence
-Timmons
-Inouye
-Invitation
-Liberal invitees
-Baker
-Questioning of Mitchell
-Questioning of John W. Dean, III
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Privacy]
[Duration: 37 s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Mitchell
-Statement regarding President
-Mutual friends
-Robert H. Abplanalp
-Telephone call from Woods
-Ervin Committee testimony
-Moore
-Ervin Committee testimony
-Role
-30-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 949-10 (cont’d)
-Dean’s testimony
-Fundraising
-Testimony compared to Mitchell’s testimony
-Fundraising
-La Costa
-Access to files
-Ervin’s telephone call to President
-Baker
-Baker, Weicker
-Access to White House, President
*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
President’s schedule
-President’s health
-Woods’s recommendation
-Rest in Lincoln Sitting Room
-Clothes
-X-ray
-Timing
-Clothes
-Naval clinic
-Utility
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 20 s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-31-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 949-10 (cont’d)
President’s health
-President’s appearance
-Symptoms
-Pneumonia
-Hospital
-Walter Reed Hospital
-Compared to naval hospital
-Dr. [First name unknown] Henning [?]
Gift
-Watch in malachite box
-Julie Nixon Eisenhower
-Thomas Hart [?]
[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************
Woods’s request to Sanchez
Woods left at 4:46 pm.Also recorded on July 12, 1973
- 949-005 2:56 PM · 29 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Walter Scheel, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:56 pm to 3:25 pm.
- 949-006 3:26 PM · 32 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:26 pm to 4:00 pm.
- 949-007 4:01 PM · 20 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William E. Timmons met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:01 pm to 4:22 pm.
- 949-008 4:22 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:22 pm and 4:25 pm.
- 949-021 4:22 PM · 14 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:22 pm and 4:25 pm.
- 949-009 4:25 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Richard E. Bland, W. Howard McClennan, Howard D. Tipton, Dana G. Mead, Walter D. Scott, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:25 pm to 4:30 pm.
- 949-011 4:48 PM · 21 min — Rose Mary Woods, unknown person(s), President Richard M. Nixon, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:48 pm to 5:09 pm.
- 949-012 5:09 PM · 48 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., unknown person(s), Ronald L. Ziegler, and Dr. Walter R. Tkach met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:09 pm and 8:22 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 949-010, July 12, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/949-010 (accessed October 10, 2026).