Speeches of Richard Nixon
Speeches of Richard Nixon
Compilation of speeches made by Richard Milhous Nixon.
Speeches of Richard Nixon
August 22nd, 1973 Excerpt of President RICHARD NIXON News Conference, answering questions pertaining to Watergate investigation at outdoor press conference, 1973 (from 2" video) : Mr. Nixon says Mr. MacGregor conducted a thorough investigation, though Jeb Magruder slipped through the cracks. Press Mr. President can you tell us who you personally talked to, in directing that investigations be made both in June of 1972, shortly after the Watergate incident, and last March 21, when you got new evidence, and ordered a more intensive investigation? President Nixon, Certainly. In June I first talked to Mr. MacGregor, first of all, who was the new chairmen of the committee. And he told me he would conduct a thorough investigation as far as his committee staff was concerned. Apparently that investigation was very effective except for Mr. Magruder, who stayed on, but Mr. McGregor does not have to assume responsibility for that. I say not responsibility for it, because basically, what happened there, he believed Mr. Magruder, and many others believed him too. He proved however to be wrong. In the White House the investigation s responsibility were given to Mr. Ehrlichman at the highest level, and in turn, he delegated them, to Mr. Dean, the White House Counsel. Something of which I was aware, and of which I approved. Mr. Dean as White House Counsel therefore sat in, on the FBI interrogation of the members of the White House staff, because of what I wanted to know, if any member of the White House staff, was in anyway involved. If he was involved, he would be fired. And the, when we met on September the 15th, and again throughout our discussions in the month of March, Mr. Dean insisted that the, there was not, I use his words, A scintilla of evidence, indicating if anyone in the White House was involved, of the planning of the Watergate break-in. Now, in terms of, after March 21st, Mr. Dean first, was given the responsibility to write his own report, but I did not rest it there, I also had a contact made with the Attorney General, himself. The Attorney General told him, this was on the 27th of March, to report to me directly, anything that he found in this particular area, and I gave the responsibility for Mr. Ehrlichman on the 29th of March, to continue the investigation that Mr. Dean was unable to conclude, having spent a week at Camp David unable to finish the report. Mr. Ehrlichman questioned a number of people, in that period at my direction, including Mr. Mitchell and I should also point out that as far as my own activities were concerned I was not leaving it just to them. I met at great length with Mr. Ehrlichman, Mr. Halderman, Mr. Dean, Mr. Mitchell on the 22nd. I discussed the whole matter with them. I discussed, I kept pressing for the view that I had throughout. If we must get this story out, get the truth out; whatever and whoever it s going to hurt. And it was there that Mr. Mitchell suggested that all the individuals involved in the White House appear in an executive session before the urban committee. We never got that far, but at least that s the indication of the extent of my own investigation. I think we ll go to Mr. Lisadore now. Press, Mr. President, you have said repeatedly that you tried to get all the facts, and just now you mentioned the March 22nd meeting, yet the former Attorney John Mitchell said that, if you ever asked him at any time about the Watergate matter, he would have told you the whole story, chapter and verse. Was Mr. Mitchell not speaking the truth, when he said that before the committee? President Nixon, Mr. Lisador, I m not going to question Mr. Mitchell s veracity, and I will only say that throughout I had competence in Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell in a telephone call that I had with him immediately after it occurred, expressed great chagrin that he had not run a tight enough shop, and that some of the boys, as he called them, got involved, in this kind of activity which he knew could be very, very embarrassing, apart from its legality, to the campaign, throughout, I would have expected Mr. Mitchell to tell me, in the event that he was involved, or that anybody else was. He did not tell me. I don t blame him for not telling me. He s given his reasons for not telling me. I regret that he did not, because he s exactly right. Had he told me, I would have blown my stack. Just as I did at Zibler, the other day. Press, I wonder sir, how much personal blame you accept, for the climate in the White House and in the re-election committee for the abuses of Watergate. Nixon, I accept it all. Press, Mr. President, I want to state this question, with due respect for your office, but also as directly President Nixon cuts in, smiling, That would be unusual. Everyone is laughing. Reporter, I would like to think not.
Speeches of Richard Nixon
November 17th, 1973 Excerpt of President RICHARD M. NIXON speaking at an indoor press conference in Orlando, Florida, after releasing the Watergate tapes. "In 8 years, I made a lot of money. I made $250,000 from a book & the serial rights which many of you have been good enough to purchase also. In the practice of law, and I'm not claiming I was worth it, but apparently former Vice Presidents & Presidents are worth a great deal to law firms, and I did work pretty hard, but also during that period I earned between $100,000 & $250,000 a year. So that when in 1968 I decided to become a candidate for president, I decided to clean the decks & put everything in real estate. I sold all my stock $300,000, I sold my apartment in NY for $300,000 and I had $100,000 coming to me from the law firm. So that's where the money came from. Let me just say this, and I want to say this to the television audience, I've made my mistakes, but in all my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited, from public service. I've earned every cent, and in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice, and I think too that I can say that in my years of public life that I welcomed this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I got." Mr. Nixon is visibly angry and at times.