White House Tapes . Presidential Recordings Program

In this telephone call, the only two men to have ever beaten Richard Nixon^∇ in elections compared notes. The call took place the day after the November 6, 1962, mid-term elections.

Pat Brown, a Democrat, had won re-election as Governor of California, beating Republican challenger and former Vice President, Richard M. Nixon. In publicly conceding on the morning of November 7, Nixon had blamed the press for his defeat, famously declaring to gathered reporters that "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." Political commentators regarded Nixon's political career over.

Note: The audio quality of this recording is poor. Frequent skipping of the Dictabelt needle has resulted in frequent repetition and difficulty in rendering a coherent transcript.