Nixon declares that he is not a crook

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33386, 19 November 1973, Page 15

Nixon declares that he is not a crook

, • (N Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright* ORLANDO (Florida), November 18. President Nixon, his clenched fists flailing the air and his chin jutting out, declared last night that he was not a crook and insisted that he had been telling the truth in denying any involvement in the Watergate hugging cover-up or any shady financial transactions. Before an audience of 400 editors and watched by millions on television, the President defended his personal and political honour in these words: “I have never obstructed justice . . “I welcome an examination because the people have the right to know whether or not their President is a crook. “Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.’’

Nixon made his first fullscale public defence against allegations of corruption and impropriety when he held an unprecedented hour-long question and answer session with members of the Associated Press managing editors from the United States and Canada.

The unusual setting for the meeting was the severely modern ballroom of the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World, the vast Walt Disney entertainment park, to which he flew from his winter home sin Key Biscayne. Same account In a spirited and emotional effort to regain public confidence and ward off pressures for his impeachment or resignation, Mr Nixon gave essentially the same account of his conduct as he had in earlier speeches and written statements. But he spoke with great earnestness and vehemence and stripped some of the secrecy from his personal finances to prove that he had nothing to be ashamed of. He confirmed reports that he paid only nominal income taxes in 1970 and 1971 — the two-year period after he entered the White House — because he had given his Vice-Presidential papers to the nation, which he valued at $500,000 and had been granted a deduction for them, tn 1969, he paid taxes of $79,000. The President said that this formula — which some newspapers had attacked as unethical — had been perfectly proper and legal. The editors for the most part were subdued, applauding the President politely when he began and finished the session, but they did not show particular emotion other than to laugh at some of his jokes. It was impossible to tell immediately if he had made any substantial gains in his battle to restore public confidence in his integrity and whether he had convinced any of his critics to accept his version of events. Mr Nixon said the reason he had taken the $500,000 reduction for his Vice-Presi-dential papers was that the former President, Lyndon B. Johnson, came to see him soon after he entered the

White House and disclosed that he had given most of his Presidential papers to the nation and that a tax deduction was proper and should be taken. Speaking of the “dirty trick” perpetrated on his behalf during the 1972 Presidential election campaign, Mr Nixon said he did not run the campaign “and people around me didn’t bring things to me that they probably should have because I was frankly just too busy trying to do the nation’s business to run the politics.” He said that he had learned the lesson that a politician should always run his own campaign, although he intended to take the heat for all the mistakes committed by his staff last year. In a long explanation of his personal finances, Mr Nixon said that he was the first President who had not owned any stock since Harry Truman in 1945-1953. When he won the presidency in 1968, Mr Nixon said, he sold all his stock. TV accused The President -- who last month accused television commentators of spreading vicious, distorted and hysterical reports about him —attacked television again tonight. He said that the networks did a poorer job than newspapers in disseminating White House denials of allegations that he had pocketed a million dollars in campaign funds. The President, a prosperous lawyer after leaving the VicePresidency in 1961 and before entering the Wb re House in 1969, said that he knew questions were being asked as to how he was able to afford homes worth millions of dollars on his Presidential salary. "Well, I should point out I wasn’t a pauper when I became President,” he said. “I wasn’t very rich as Presidents go. But . . . when I left office after four years as a Congressman, two years as a Senator, and eight years at $45,000 a year as Vice-Pre-sident. ... Do you know what my net worth was? “It was a total of $47,000 after 14 years of Government service, and a 1958 Oldsmobile that needed an overhaul.” The President, said that he had no complaints about money because he made a lot of it from a book he wrote about the crises in his life and from his salary as a lawyer, which was between $150,000 and $200,000 a year. When he became a candidate for President in 1968, he said, he decided to clean the decks and put everything in real estate. He sold all his stock for $300,000, sold his apartment in New York for $300,000, and had $lOO,OOO coming from his law firm. "So, that is where the money came from,” he dedared. “Let me just say this

I- . . I made my mistakes, buti jin all of my years of public! life, I have never profited from public service. “1 have earned every cent. And in all of my years of; public service, 1 have never obstructed justice. “And I think, too, that l! could say that in my years of j public life, I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know! whether or not their President! is a crook. Well, 1 am not a crook. I have earned every-j thing I’ve got.” Nervous and tense ’ The President was nervous j and tense when the session] began although the questions; from the editors were far less; aggressive and pointed than! those put to him by reporters at press conferences at the White House in Washington. At one point, he became flustered, saying that two of his former top White House aides, John Erhlichman and H. R. (Bob) Haldeman—alleged to have been involved in the Watergate cover-up—-“are guilty until we have evidence they are not guilty.” A few minutes later an editor got to his feet and suggested that the President had mis-spoken himself. Mr Nixon responded with the remark: “Yes, I certainly did . . thank you for correcting me.” The President gave the first confirmation of reports that the Secret Service had tapped the telephone of his brother, Donald, for national security reasons. He said that Donald Nixon became aware of the wire-taps after they had started, and then I approved them. Asked if it made any sense j to conduct surveillance when somebody knew it was going! on, Mr Nixon replied that iti concerned "others who were) trying to get him, perhaps to! use improper influence . . .1 particularly anybody who; might be in a foreign country.” Mr Nixon spoke unusually rapidly, raised arms and clenched fists for emphasis, and touching his heart with open hand, as he stood between the United States and Presidential flags on the ballroom’s floodlit bandstand. He repeated his previous assertions that he had no | advance knowledge of the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters last year ' and that he was not aware of a cover-up until the ousted White House counsel, ' John Dean, told him about it 1 last March 21. Dean has testified before the Senate Watergate committee that he told the President the facts as early 1 as December 15, 1972: Lack of tapes The President repeated White House explanations , that two tape recordings of crucial conversations with Dean and the former Attorney-General, John Mitchell—which it had promised to supply to Judge John Sirica—did not exist because the tape ran out. He also said that the quality of other tapes was poor because the recording machine—which he identified as “a little Sony”—was not a sophisticated piece of equipment. The hour-long session was the start of a big campaign by the President to restore his credibility which, he has personally acknowledged, has been damaged by questions and suspicions raised about his role in the Watergate affair. Political observers said that it was an incredible spectacle to see the President denying on national television that he is a crook —but White House aides said

that he wanted to speak out frankly so that any doubts about his integrity, honour, and leadership could be resolved. The President’s replies to the editors’ questions represented a major effort to convince his audience and millions of televiewers that | he was uncorrupted and incorruptible. The President spiced his remarks with humorous references to calls for his impeachment or resignation and Ito the energy crisis. . Asked what he would do 'when he retired from public I life, he replied: "It all j depends on when 1 leave.” Saving face Tne President told his audience that he was hoping to conserve fuel by ordering pilots of Air Force 1. his persona) Boeing 707 jet, to cut its normal speed from 525 miles per hour to 475 miles per hour on the flight from Washington to his home in Key Biscayne. He had also ordered that his back-up jet normally accompanying the Presidential party, should be dispensed with on the flight. “If this one (Air Force I); goes down, then it goes down, and then they don’t! have to impeach," he joked. I