Presidential Recordings Program

Published in The Presidential Recordings: Lyndon B. Johnson: The Kennedy Assassination and the Transfer of Power,
November 1963–January 1964, Volume One, November 22-30, 1963, edited by Max Holland (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005), p.125

A few minutes fter midnight on June 5, 1968, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot shortly after claiming victory in the California Democratic primary in Los Angeles. He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.  

 The rec ording begins while the conversation is already in progress.

Senator Edward Kennedy calls Vice President Hubert Humphrey to discuss a possible compromise on his Poll Tax amendmant to the Voting Rights Bill.

Edward Kennedy: Hello? Mr. Vice-President?

Vice-President Humphrey: Yes, Ted?

President Johnson: I am going to have Dean Rusk^∇ and the Chief Justice [Earl Warren] are going to be at Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed, and they are dedicating a portion of it to President [John F.] Kennedy.1

Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy: Uh-huh.

• 1. Runnymede is located in the county of Surrey, England.

Edward Kennedy: Sorry to call you at this hour. This afternoon, I am speaking for the first time up in the state to the legislature tomorrow. And I’ve been working on a speech for the legislature, and I haven’t been completely satisfied with the way that this has sort of developed.

After polls closed on the evening of 3 November, it was clear that Senator Edward Kennedy had won his bid for reelection handily, beating the Republican challenger, Howard Whitmore, Jr., on the order of 74 percent to 25 percent of the vote.

On the night of 19 June 1964, a plane carrying Senator Edward Kennedy crashed in Western Massachusetts in poor weather conditions. Pulled from the crash by fellow Senator, Birch Bayh [D-Indiana], Kennedy suffered severe injuries, including fractured vertebrae, a collapsed lung, and fractured ribs.