1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:03,400
Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast am on

2
00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:06,120
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio cootape.

3
00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:08,200
Speaker 2: Of an incident that took place less than fifteen minutes

4
00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:10,840
Speaker 2: ago at the Washington Hillton Hotel when shots were fired

5
00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:13,120
Speaker 2: at President Recond. Here you see the President coming out.

6
00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:15,400
Speaker 1: Now we just have to watch. I don't know whether

7
00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,919
Speaker 1: we can hear this or not. There it does shops flop.

8
00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:24,319
Speaker 2: He was on the agents and leaders and bide in

9
00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:28,319
Speaker 2: after the asservants are two or three people down on

10
00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:33,680
Speaker 2: the on the ground. We understand, but one Secret Service

11
00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 2: agent one had made me another Washington policeman and who

12
00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:46,960
Speaker 2: was injured. I can't hear the sound on this. You

13
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,519
Speaker 2: can't hear the sound. We understand also that James Brady,

14
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:55,200
Speaker 2: the White House Press secretary, was among those injured. President

15
00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,160
Speaker 2: just a Nott of the fanfranc Yes, there is.

16
00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:06,320
Speaker 3: To Brady.

17
00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:11,840
Speaker 2: All this happened the two third of this afternoon. As

18
00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:14,680
Speaker 2: the President was coming out after talking to the er

19
00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,240
Speaker 2: called Cio. This is the first time that any of

20
00:01:18,319 --> 00:01:24,319
Speaker 2: us has seen any of this of this tape, the president.

21
00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,720
Speaker 2: Let me repeat once again, the President was immediately pushed

22
00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,560
Speaker 2: into his cars. The agents are trained to do the

23
00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,119
Speaker 2: situation of this kind, and the car immediately took off

24
00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:35,399
Speaker 2: at fast to the whiteout.

25
00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:39,880
Speaker 3: That's the way it sounded. March thirtieth, nineteen eighty one

26
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,039
Speaker 3: ABC News anchor The Lady Frank Reynolds reporting on the

27
00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:49,600
Speaker 3: attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. We'll get into that

28
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:53,520
Speaker 3: and much more with Ken Kashigian, who served as trusted

29
00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:58,080
Speaker 3: speechwriter confidence strategists to political legends and presidential giants Ronald

30
00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,440
Speaker 3: Reagan and Richard Nixon, whether in the Oval Office, on

31
00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:04,280
Speaker 3: Air Force One, at Camp David, or the Western White House,

32
00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:07,840
Speaker 3: Ken was an eyewitness and insider to the twentieth century's

33
00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:13,040
Speaker 3: greatest historical moments. Widely regarded as president as the President's

34
00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:17,240
Speaker 3: favorite speech writer, the remarks Kashigian crafted for Reagan's delivery

35
00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:20,760
Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty five at Bergen Belson's former concentration camp

36
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,519
Speaker 3: has been described as the best speech of Reagan's career.

37
00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:29,400
Speaker 3: Kashigian quickly mastered Reagan Reagan's speaking style and gained his

38
00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:33,280
Speaker 3: confidence after joining the candidates struggling nineteen eighty presidential campaign,

39
00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,880
Speaker 3: earning the distinction from political writer Anthony Yorke as an

40
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:42,000
Speaker 3: architect of Ronald Reagan's nineteen eighty White House victory. Appointed

41
00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,080
Speaker 3: Special Consultant to the President and senior White House staff member,

42
00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:48,880
Speaker 3: they formed a unique personal relationship. Beginning with Reagan's acclaimed

43
00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:53,280
Speaker 3: first inaugural address, Ken kashigi In collaborated to craft language

44
00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,880
Speaker 3: shaping the historic Economic Recovery plan that marked the Fiscal

45
00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:00,800
Speaker 3: Revolution for America's turnaround and renewed the new national spirit.

46
00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:03,799
Speaker 3: Ken teamed up with Reagan to prepare dozens of other

47
00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:07,360
Speaker 3: prominent public addresses. Among them were Reagan's re election announcement

48
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:11,359
Speaker 3: and convention acceptance speeches in nineteen eighty four, critical foreign

49
00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:14,239
Speaker 3: policy remarks at the UN General Assembly, State of the

50
00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:18,680
Speaker 3: Union Remarks, and speeches before Joint Sessions of Congress. Preparing

51
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,440
Speaker 3: to leave office, Reagan asked Ken to draft his dramatic

52
00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:26,120
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty eight farewell address to the Republican National Convention.

53
00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:30,560
Speaker 3: Ken Kashigein's new book is behind closed doors in the

54
00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:34,840
Speaker 3: room with Reagan and Nixon. Ken, Welcome to Coast to coast, Am.

55
00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:36,240
Speaker 3: How are you good?

56
00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 4: Richard? Great to be here. Thank you boy. That listening

57
00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:45,560
Speaker 4: to that recording just sent NU took me back nineteen

58
00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,840
Speaker 4: eighty one. Sent tingles down my spine all over again.

59
00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:54,520
Speaker 4: That just made me shake just hearing that. Those sounds

60
00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,800
Speaker 4: of taking me back to that day of assassination attempt.

61
00:03:58,840 --> 00:03:59,920
Speaker 4: It was such a well bed.

62
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:02,880
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, well let's start there. I mean, you weren't,

63
00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:05,520
Speaker 3: as I mentioned, you weren't with President Reagan when he

64
00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:11,160
Speaker 3: was shot. But what what's the detail about that day

65
00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:12,640
Speaker 3: that most people don't know?

66
00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:19,240
Speaker 4: Well, it was the day started for me. We had

67
00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:25,560
Speaker 4: a senior staff meeting and then I I uh delegated

68
00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,440
Speaker 4: that speech to it. The brand new speechwriter, Mariray Moss

69
00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,760
Speaker 4: sing I had carried such a heavy load that she

70
00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:33,880
Speaker 4: was the rookie speechwriter. So I said, you know, why

71
00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:36,880
Speaker 4: don't you take a shot at this. And I oversaw

72
00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:42,400
Speaker 4: the speech and it was before the Union group and

73
00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:46,159
Speaker 4: and uh, but the President himself took a heavy hand

74
00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,640
Speaker 4: to the speech up at Camp David and sent her

75
00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:55,280
Speaker 4: back down. And then he had inserted a sam a

76
00:04:55,360 --> 00:05:00,440
Speaker 4: quote into Samuel Gumper's quote, and when uh, he sent

77
00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,800
Speaker 4: him back down to the White House. So he called

78
00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:09,160
Speaker 4: me that morning and to verify the change in the

79
00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:11,560
Speaker 4: quote right, and we had to have it correct that

80
00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:14,480
Speaker 4: he didn't get it quite right, and so he called me,

81
00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:16,720
Speaker 4: and so we had to change that, and we had

82
00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:19,279
Speaker 4: to change another statistic, and then he called me again,

83
00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:22,960
Speaker 4: and so after that we were going to deliver the

84
00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:27,560
Speaker 4: reading copy to him. So I grabbed Murray, she's not

85
00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:29,920
Speaker 4: married George will I grabbed her and I said, let's go.

86
00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:32,279
Speaker 4: You haven't met the president yet. Let's go to the

87
00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:36,240
Speaker 4: west wing and delivered the speech to him. So we

88
00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:41,880
Speaker 4: ran over the west wing and it was now about

89
00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:47,880
Speaker 4: just after twelve fifteen or so we went over the

90
00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:53,159
Speaker 4: west We've delivered the reading copy to him. And normally, Richard,

91
00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:59,680
Speaker 4: I always attend these events with the President, but I

92
00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,400
Speaker 4: was exhausted from I mean, done so much of the

93
00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:07,520
Speaker 4: work on the initial the speech with the president, and

94
00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:11,800
Speaker 4: I was just exhausted. And I said, Bori, I said,

95
00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:14,359
Speaker 4: you know you had worked this is your first initial speech,

96
00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:16,919
Speaker 4: rookie speech. I said, no, where do you go with

97
00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:20,480
Speaker 4: the president on this one? And take a look at

98
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,919
Speaker 4: how he delivers these speeches. So and for once I

99
00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:27,719
Speaker 4: could have a nice relaxed lunch and take it easy today.

100
00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:34,080
Speaker 4: And so I sent her on and and so Richard,

101
00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:40,479
Speaker 4: I would have been as a senior staff member, not

102
00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:44,240
Speaker 4: as junior, as Marie was. I would have been up

103
00:06:44,279 --> 00:06:49,160
Speaker 4: in the motorcade setting up with Deverer and Brady, and

104
00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:51,400
Speaker 4: then I would have been coming out of Washington Hilton

105
00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:57,479
Speaker 4: alongside of them, and so but I'm fast forwarding now.

106
00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:01,400
Speaker 4: But instead I went to have leisurely launched and went

107
00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,200
Speaker 4: up to have a meeting with Marty Anderson, the Domestic

108
00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:09,200
Speaker 4: Policy Advisor, right after lunch. And then it was a

109
00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:13,160
Speaker 4: rainy day that day, and as we're meeting, the sirens

110
00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:16,520
Speaker 4: were going off loudly and loudly, and I said to Marty,

111
00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:18,440
Speaker 4: I said, you know, there must be an accident over

112
00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:24,040
Speaker 4: on seventeenth Street or Pennsylvania Avenue. And then Barbara Honeger,

113
00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:29,440
Speaker 4: his secretary, burst into the office and said the President's

114
00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:32,240
Speaker 4: been shot. And I said, you know, those words just

115
00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:35,680
Speaker 4: ring into your head, and of course I was what

116
00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:38,120
Speaker 4: took me back to nineteen sixty three, when I was

117
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:41,360
Speaker 4: a sophomore in college heading out to my English class,

118
00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:45,559
Speaker 4: when President Kennedy was shot. And that's when, of course,

119
00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:47,600
Speaker 4: the first thing you think, you turn on the TV

120
00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:50,080
Speaker 4: and see what you can find out. And there was

121
00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,880
Speaker 4: that picture of Jim Brady laying on the pavement there,

122
00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:58,560
Speaker 4: and all I could think about was I piled around

123
00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:01,240
Speaker 4: with Jim Brady all through the night ad campaign. We

124
00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:05,200
Speaker 4: were the closest of buddies. We sat across the work

125
00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,200
Speaker 4: table from each other all throughout the campaign. If you

126
00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:12,320
Speaker 4: read my book, those first chapter six chapters on the

127
00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:15,720
Speaker 4: eighty campaign talks about how Jim Brady and I piled

128
00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:18,600
Speaker 4: around all the time. I would have been standing right

129
00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,000
Speaker 4: next to him coming out of the Washington Hilton.

130
00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,880
Speaker 3: That day unbelievable, and that you and I might not

131
00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:27,520
Speaker 3: be talking right now had been had it not been

132
00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:28,560
Speaker 3: for a little fatigue.

133
00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, dodging the bullet had all new meaning to me

134
00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:33,200
Speaker 4: that day.

135
00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:38,640
Speaker 3: So did President Reagan ever talk about how the assassination

136
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:41,679
Speaker 3: attempt changed him personally? I mean, did it make him

137
00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:43,719
Speaker 3: more fearless or more fatalistic?

138
00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:51,400
Speaker 4: It made him, he said later on, we've been especially

139
00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:54,640
Speaker 4: when we were filming some commercials in eighty four. But

140
00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:59,599
Speaker 4: he did tell it again to Missus Reagan.

141
00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:00,120
Speaker 2: And to.

142
00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:06,840
Speaker 4: The Catholic cardinal. He said, you know, he felt that

143
00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:09,080
Speaker 4: there was an angel on his shoulder, and he said,

144
00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:14,400
Speaker 4: whatever time I have left belongs to God. But he

145
00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:17,600
Speaker 4: felt that life had no meaning for him. And right

146
00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:21,720
Speaker 4: afterwards too he penned a long letter to the Soviet,

147
00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:28,040
Speaker 4: to the Soviet premier that you know, some changes had

148
00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:30,160
Speaker 4: to be made in terms of how they viewed each other.

149
00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:34,600
Speaker 4: But he you know, when when you escape death as

150
00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:38,560
Speaker 4: he had, there had to be some changes. And when

151
00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,680
Speaker 4: you watch the film commercials we did in eighty or four,

152
00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,200
Speaker 4: he talks about it explicitly. Yes, it did make a

153
00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:45,040
Speaker 4: big change.

154
00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:49,480
Speaker 3: In his attitude and his humor after the shooting became legendary.

155
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,320
Speaker 3: Was that was that one Reagan? Or was there a

156
00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:56,680
Speaker 3: conscious effort maybe from his team, maybe from you, to

157
00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,760
Speaker 3: craft that image, to craft that image of resilience.

158
00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:04,679
Speaker 4: No, No, that was the humor in the hospital undown.

159
00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:07,880
Speaker 4: He didn't have any joke writers in the hospital room.

160
00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:12,200
Speaker 4: You know where he's at. Honey, I forgot the duck

161
00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:16,160
Speaker 4: and then he said to the doctor, he said, I

162
00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:21,560
Speaker 4: hope you're all Republicans. No, that was all the classic

163
00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:25,440
Speaker 4: Ronald Reagan. You know, the guy had a gift for gap.

164
00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:30,440
Speaker 4: There's no question about that. Later on, when we delivered

165
00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:34,160
Speaker 4: a prepare to speech before the Joint Session of Congress,

166
00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:38,880
Speaker 4: when he came back on April twenty eighth, and we milked,

167
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,959
Speaker 4: and we milked the public sentiment for all we could.

168
00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,839
Speaker 4: And I tell that story in great detail in my

169
00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:53,120
Speaker 4: book about how we did that, but that we specifically

170
00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:59,200
Speaker 4: wrote some great stories into that speech to get a

171
00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:04,320
Speaker 4: lot of humor in it. So that was I plead guilty.

172
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:10,160
Speaker 3: Let's talk about his rise and the nineteen eighty campaign.

173
00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:12,760
Speaker 3: I mean, he was a political outsider. He took on

174
00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:17,320
Speaker 3: the GOPI establishment. What's the biggest myth about his nineteen

175
00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:19,560
Speaker 3: eighty campaign that people still get wrong?

176
00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:24,560
Speaker 4: Oh, the biggest myth, Richard, is that we were in

177
00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:31,720
Speaker 4: the dumps back in late September, in early October. You know,

178
00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:36,840
Speaker 4: everybody thinks Reagan's campaign in nineteen eighty they he won

179
00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,960
Speaker 4: a landslide and this was just we were gliding all

180
00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:44,200
Speaker 4: the way through. Everything was easy, peasy, but this was

181
00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:49,280
Speaker 4: a struggle. In early October, we were going through a nightmare.

182
00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:58,240
Speaker 4: We were having demonstrators at every stop over the Equal

183
00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:02,240
Speaker 4: Rights Amendment. So we had women demonstrators that every stop

184
00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,440
Speaker 4: were demonstrating against them. And then he had he had

185
00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:10,120
Speaker 4: made a big mistake at one stop where he said

186
00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:14,920
Speaker 4: that he said that the trees give off more as

187
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,280
Speaker 4: much as much, if not more pollution than cars. And

188
00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,560
Speaker 4: I don't know where that came from, just came out

189
00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:24,760
Speaker 4: out of left field, and I don't he read that

190
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:31,200
Speaker 4: somewhere in some goofy magazine publication, and uh, it just

191
00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:35,960
Speaker 4: slipped out. And so now here he's saying the environmental

192
00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,280
Speaker 4: environmental problems are caused by trees, and the women are

193
00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:41,760
Speaker 4: chasing him all over the place because of the Equal

194
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:45,720
Speaker 4: Rights Amendment issues, and we're being dogged. In the first

195
00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,640
Speaker 4: week of October, Jimmy Carr is ahead of us and

196
00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:54,440
Speaker 4: and we're we've got a nightmare situation. And so, uh,

197
00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:58,480
Speaker 4: the campaign was really behind, uh the first week of

198
00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:04,280
Speaker 4: October and going into the second week of October. But

199
00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:07,680
Speaker 4: I did come up with a line, and I don't

200
00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:10,920
Speaker 4: want to still still the thunder two truly in our

201
00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:15,280
Speaker 4: discussion here, but I did come up with the line

202
00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:17,360
Speaker 4: that may have helped us a little bit later in

203
00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:22,760
Speaker 4: the campaign. But that the that we might talk about later.

204
00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:26,080
Speaker 4: But those first two weeks in October, we were in big,

205
00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:31,120
Speaker 4: big trouble and it was largely because of all those demonstrators.

206
00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:35,199
Speaker 4: And it wasn't until we exceeded to agree to a debate,

207
00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:40,080
Speaker 4: and as ste Spencer, our campaign strategist, came up with

208
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,520
Speaker 4: the idea of putting a woman on the Supreme Court,

209
00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:46,920
Speaker 4: and that changed the dialogue a little bit. And but

210
00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:52,480
Speaker 4: still they felt that Reagan was sort of a cowboy,

211
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,960
Speaker 4: that he was going to be dangerous in foreign policy issues.

212
00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:59,319
Speaker 4: And it was about that time that I was having

213
00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:02,800
Speaker 4: secret discus lessions with the former President Nixon, who was

214
00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:08,240
Speaker 4: giving me private, secret advice to pass along the governor.

215
00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:11,640
Speaker 4: The governor who was then Governor Reagan, that we called him,

216
00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,160
Speaker 4: and we start changing the course of the campaign a

217
00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:18,640
Speaker 4: little bit and coming up with some new lines and

218
00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:23,840
Speaker 4: better messaging that helped later turn around the campaign, but

219
00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:27,960
Speaker 4: early on, So that's one of the myths, Richard, that

220
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:31,680
Speaker 4: things were going along really easy for regular along.

221
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:37,200
Speaker 3: Obviously, Nixon and Reagan had very different styles, yet Reagan,

222
00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:39,560
Speaker 3: as you say, leaned on Nixon's expertise a little bit.

223
00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:44,440
Speaker 3: What's the most surprising advice Nixon gave Reagan about winning

224
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:45,119
Speaker 3: the presidency?

225
00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,840
Speaker 4: Well, I think this will surprise a lot of people.

226
00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:52,840
Speaker 4: And this I go into great detail in the book,

227
00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:57,360
Speaker 4: which I hope people will spend some time in because

228
00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:02,480
Speaker 4: I reveal in these secret memos that Nixon wrote to

229
00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,480
Speaker 4: Reagan that nobody had ever seen before until I published

230
00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,600
Speaker 4: them in my book. And that is people would normally

231
00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:14,800
Speaker 4: think that Nixon would advise Reagan about foreign policy issues

232
00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:19,960
Speaker 4: and recommended to talk to him about foreign policy and

233
00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,960
Speaker 4: the advisement of foreign policy. But it's just the opposite.

234
00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:30,120
Speaker 4: Nixon said that Reagan must focus on economic issues and

235
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:37,000
Speaker 4: talk about inflation and the economy. So Nixon wrote very specific,

236
00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:44,880
Speaker 4: very brilliant strategic memos to Reagan on economic issues in

237
00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:49,560
Speaker 4: the eighty campaign, and in these secret memos as well

238
00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:53,120
Speaker 4: as in secret conversations that he had with me. Now

239
00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,800
Speaker 4: I say that their secret for a good reason, Richard,

240
00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:01,240
Speaker 4: and that was we were still close enough to Watergate

241
00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:08,520
Speaker 4: that hadn't been known in nineteen eighty that anyone that

242
00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:13,080
Speaker 4: Reagan was in communication with Nixon, the Carter people would

243
00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:15,600
Speaker 4: have jumped on it, as we used to say, like

244
00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:16,800
Speaker 4: a hen on a ginbug.

245
00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,880
Speaker 1: I'll bet listen to more Coast to Coast AM every

246
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:24,080
Speaker 1: weeknight at one am Eastern and go to Coast to

247
00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:25,920
Speaker 1: coastam dot com for more