John Dean∇: The resources that have been put against this whole investigation to date are really incredible. It's truly a larger investigation than was conducted against--”after inquiry of the JFK assassination.
President Nixon: Oh.
Dean: And good statistics supporting that. [Richard] Kleindienst∇ is going to have a--“
Bob Haldeman∇: Isn't that ridiculous, though?
Dean: What is?
Haldeman: This silly ass damn thing.
President Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: That that kind of resources against--”
President Nixon: Yeah for Christ's sake [unclear].
Haldeman: Who the hell cares?
President Nixon: [Barry] Goldwater∇ put it in context, he said --œWell, for Christ's sake, everybody bugs everybody else. We know that.--
Dean: That was--”that was priceless.
Haldeman: Yeah. I bugged--”
President Nixon: Well, it's true. It happens to be totally true.
Dean: [Unclear.]
President Nixon: We were bugged in '68 on the plane and bugged in '62, even running for Governor. God damnedest thing you ever saw.
Dean: It was a shame that that evidence, the fact that that happened in '68, was never preserved around. I understand that only the former Director [of the FBI∇, J. Edgar Hoover∇] had that information.
Haldeman: No, that's not true.
Dean: There was direct evidence of it?
President Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: There's others who have that information.
President Nixon: Others know it.
Dean: [Cartha --œDeke--] DeLoach?
President Nixon: DeLoach, right.
Haldeman: I've got some stuff on it, too, in the bombing halt study. --˜Cause it's all--”that's why, the, the stuff I've got we don't ever use--”
President Nixon: The difficulty with using it, of course, is that it reflects on [Lyndon] Johnson.
Dean: Right.
President Nixon: He ordered it. If it weren't for that, I'd use it. Is there any way we could use it without reflecting on Johnson? How--“could we say that the Democratic National Committee did it? No, the FBI did the bugging, though.
Haldeman: That's the problem.
Dean: Is it going to reflect on Johnson or [Hubert] Humphrey?
Haldeman: Johnson. Humphrey didn't do it.
Dean: Humphrey didn't do it?
President Nixon: Oh, hell no.
Haldeman: He was bugging Humphrey, too.
All three men laugh.
President Nixon: Well, God damn.
Haldeman laughs.