RICHARD NIXON TAPES: Obstruction of Justice, Watergate, & E. Howard Hunt — Transcript

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1. 0:04What's your judgment as to what uh what
2. 0:07ought to be done now? You know, there's
3. 0:09various discussions about
4. 0:11whether
5. 0:12there should be a
6. 0:14uh a report made or something, you know,
7. 0:17a
8. 0:18a report to the the President or just
9. 0:21hunker down and take it or what is what
10. 0:23have you and so forth and so on.
11. 0:24Well, my feeling as President
12. 0:26thus far, frankly, is that
13. 0:29you're not being hurt so much at all.
14. 0:30This
15. 0:31this is a
16. 0:32uh
17. 0:33a Washington story still and that's
18. 0:36that's sounds incredible after all this
19. 0:37time and all this publicity, but I I
20. 0:40I'm convinced that's so.
21. 0:42Uh
22. 0:42but you see, looking to the future, I
23. 0:44suppose, Chuck, what
24. 0:45some of our fellows that are, you know,
25. 0:47like uh
26. 0:49Dean, who's really done a superb job
27. 0:51here keeping all the fires out, he's
28. 0:53he's concerned about, you know, what
29. 0:55what what bubbles out, you know.
30. 0:57Yeah, well, Dean is the problem also,
31. 0:58but President, I I didn't want to say
32. 1:00this to you uh
33. 1:02Monday night when you mentioned to me
34. 1:04this uh
35. 1:06that that Dean has done a spectacular
36. 1:08job. I don't think anybody could do as
37. 1:09good a job as China said.
38. 1:12The the problem I foresee in this is not
39. 1:14what has happened so far. I mean, I I
40. 1:16think the
41. 1:18the mystery of the Watergate uh
42. 1:20I don't know whether somebody's going to
43. 1:22uh somebody else fire him and then
44. 1:24immediately for the reelections are
45. 1:25going to get named or not, but to me
46. 1:27that is a
47. 1:28very great consequence to the country if
48. 1:30it if it happens.
49. 1:32The thing that worries me is the is the
50. 1:33possibility of
51. 1:36somebody uh charging an obstruction of
52. 1:38justice problem. In other words, if the
53. 1:40the subsequent action
54. 1:42would worry me more than anything and
55. 1:44that's
56. 1:45and that's where John has
57. 1:48has he done all the things that have to
58. 1:49be done, but that that makes him
59. 1:52a little more of a participant than
60. 1:55than he would like if you
61. 1:57if if if uh
62. 1:59he's the fellow that has to
63. 2:02coordinate it all if and
64. 2:05he's got the best privilege he's got a
65. 2:07double privilege but
66. 2:09subsequent development
67. 2:11would be the only ones that would work
68. 2:12me I don't worry about the
69. 2:16how the Watergate came about I think
70. 2:17that's been so long but
71. 2:19they get someone else get them that's
72. 2:21all and if
73. 2:23testimony is
74. 2:25it'll get the goddamn confused it's
75. 2:27it's maybe the stuff after
76. 2:31afterwards but
77. 2:33you mean the
78. 2:34the
79. 2:34if anything they would regard to the
80. 2:37dependence of course that was all
81. 2:41yeah that's that's that's that area that
82. 2:43I mean that general area
83. 2:44of course that was I want to bring you
84. 2:46within had to be done
85. 2:48hell yes no I mean
86. 2:50no second thoughts but
87. 2:52the point is the justice
88. 2:54it was with the ability now to
89. 2:57stand up to it I don't know I I thought
90. 2:58of several things I thought of trying to
91. 3:00get a
92. 3:01social counselor to you that could
93. 3:06would be an appointee that that you
94. 3:08could appoint not not as an investigator
95. 3:10but as a counselor
96. 3:12just to handle the goddamn thing on the
97. 3:13grounds that you don't want the Justice
98. 3:15Department handling it and you don't
99. 3:16want the regular White House staff
100. 3:17handling it they've got their work to do
101. 3:19and you appoint a man of which he had
102. 3:23impeccable
103. 3:24credentials man
104. 3:26known for his integrity
105. 3:28standing before the bar you know that
106. 3:30kind of thing but a guy who's totally
107. 3:32loyal
108. 3:33or just a standard lawyer who would be
109. 3:35professional then
110. 3:37that's one thought that I've been
111. 3:38playing with the last couple of days
112. 3:41we have an advantage you see of getting
113. 3:43all of the people who have been
114. 3:45in one way or another participating out
115. 3:47of the damn thing so that you
116. 3:49you've got a guy who uh
117. 3:52frankly can can deal with the uh
118. 3:55deal with anybody he has to deal with.
119. 3:56Yeah.
120. 3:58Special counsel.
121. 3:58I think they Of course Of course you got
122. 4:01the problem of what the judge is going
123. 4:02to say Friday. I suppose he's going to
124. 4:03have quite an arraigning, isn't he?
125. 4:05Oh, yeah.
126. 4:06Yeah, he's
127. 4:07he's he's pretty tough. And then of
128. 4:09course you got the problem of uh
129. 4:11the defendant, particularly how what
130. 4:12he's what he's going to do.
131. 4:14That's always a problem in there.
132. 4:16Yes, yes.
133. 4:17But she's got problems if she does
134. 4:18anything.
135. 4:20You know there is uh
136. 4:22Well, that's right. You know what I
137. 4:24mean? Asa.
138. 4:27I have my own
139. 4:28opinion of that is that he uh
140. 4:31that he just wouldn't
141. 4:33hang in where he is. I mean, I think he
142. 4:35I I but
143. 4:37the moment I think that he's in as good
144. 4:39shape as he can be.
145. 4:41You never know.
146. 4:44A lot of pressure's on him, right, Asa?
147. 4:46Sure are.