072624 - Ken Khachigian

Episode Transcript

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Ken Kachigian was an aide back inthe day with President Richard Nixon, also
a chief speech writer to President RonaldReagan, who had been talking about that
nineteen eighty one assassination attempt that happenon his life. Ken Katchigian on the
hotline, Ken, welcome to theprogram. I appreciate you hopping on here.
Jimmy, good to be here.Give me your thoughts. You've got

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some perspective of the Reagan era,and now I want to get to the
topic of kind of the historic removalof Joe Biden from the Democrat ticket.
But right after Reagan was almost shotby John Hinckley Junior in nineteen eighty one,
it wasn't too long before we knewthat John Hinckley Junior had some mental
issues and he was hoping to impressactress Jody Foster by making the national news.

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That was before the days of theinternet. That was a guy sending
in letters with postal stamps on him. We learned a lot more about Joel
Hinckley than we did about this twentyyear old shoot that's got three or four
cell phones and a laptop. Andyet somehow we knew about John Hinckley Junior.
More Well, there were immediate investigationson that one because in the aftermath,

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you know, we didn't know whatwas going on. We thought there
could have been an international conspiracy orin the chaos after the shooting. It
was just crazy. That day.I was in the situation room with l.
Hagen Secuary Defense cap Weinberger, Sowe didn't know what was going on.
So there was a mass investigation,and that's why we knew so much

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about Hinkley right away. So youwould think, I'm with you on this
one. Why aren't they on topof this, just like you know,
him's on a jumbug, as weused to say, trying to find out
what's going on and what's behind allthis? You're right there. Why wouldn't
there be daily briefings? And insteadthey're just obsessed about all the excitement about

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the shiny new penny on the Democraticticket. Yeah, it's almost right on,
que. You know the media shouldbe yelling about that. You've been
in situation rooms, you were speechwriter, You saw the press operation of
a White House, and you knewthat the media they were like, they
were tenacious, they were bulldogs.They're like, hey, you will give
us answers. And this media doesn'tseem to be bothered that there's a lack

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of briefing almost fourteen days later,lack of information, but boy, they're
wanting to tell every story they canabout Kamala Harris and just Joe Biden,
the big switch at the top,but no real questioning. It just got
the talking points. Well, ifthe roles were reversed, if the shot
was taken at the president or KamalaHarris, I think your point is well

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taken. Press briefing would be fullof mass questions about what was going on,
who was behind it, was therea conspiracy? And why wasn't there
better protection? And so I thinkit's because it's probably because of Trump,
there's a less interest. So butthey got there, you know, once

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they got rid of the head ofthe Secret Service. That seems to satisfied
the president. Now they're off tochase, chase another rabbit. So it's
it's hard to understand, but basically, it's it's it's the press. It's
the twenty four hour news cycle anymore, Jimmy. It's they're they're always wanting

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a new story, and but thisis one that they should be chasing down
every every single day and asking alot of new questions. Uh, well,
we were talking. You mentioned theshiny new object of the new new
candidate for the Democrats. The mediaalso, Joe Biden was declared very sick.
There's reports out of Las Vegas thatthey thought he was going to the
hospital there. Then they flew outto Delaware. He was announced that he

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had the COVID And for like fiveor six days, the President was not
seen. There were no press briefings. Karine John Pierre was not hosting press
briefings at the White House. Therewas nothing, no word from the White
House. Even when this letter gottweeted out or this press release got put
out on Sunday, there was noThere was no White House photographer there,

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there was no documentation. It's justan announcement. It's like the White House
just went dark. And I foundthat to be very peculiar of your days
from the Nixon days to the Reagandays and your days in DC. Is
it that kind of peculiar that awhite House, I mean, all briefing
stopped. Twitter feed was renounced,the President's no longer running, and again
no no Q and a, nophotos of it. Just a Twitter announcement

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and no press briefing. Is that? Is that unusual? It is unusual.
You know, I just released thisbook just this week, you know,
Behind Closed Doors in the Room withthe Regular Nixon, and a lot
of it revolves around the press interest, mass interest not only in the assassin
assassination of attempt on President Reagan,but about the massive interests during Watergate.

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That's the first chapter of my bookis about water and uh uh, but
the press has, you know,a huge interest in a lot of these
stories and so uh but you're you'reyou're right on the money on that.
It's uh uh the press uh normallyhas you know, when they when they
when they want to follow the story, that they're right on top of it.

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But if it's not something that's intheir interest, they just they like
behind. So it's it's you're you'rechasing You're chasing something here that's very important
to me. You need to staystay on top of it. Uh.
Kin Kachigin is my guest. He'sthe author of a book, as he
just told you, it's a brandnew book called author It's author called Behind

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Closed Doors in the Room with Reaganand Nixon. Uh talk about that day
that you uh that Reagan was shotoutside that Hilton hotel. James Brady,
of course injured Secret Service agent,A horrible day. Where were you when
you got the news? And ofcourse the famous a microphone take by Alexander
Haig that he was in charge ofthe White House. Talk about that day

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in your memory of it, becauseI know it was in the book.
Yeah, that's a whole chapter inmy book. I called the chapters the
President's been Shot. I was thelast person to talk to President Reagan that
day. We had two phone callsjust before I went over to Washington Hilton.
I worked on that speech with him, and I would normally would have

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attended this speech with him, butI sent another speech writer so she could
see how he delivered speeches. Andboy, it was a close call because
I would have been walking right outsidethe door with Jim Brady and Mike Deaver.
So I literally dodged a bullet thatday. But so I was up
in a meeting with Marty Anderson whensomeone ran in and said the President's been

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shot, And so we were flailingaround trying to find out the news,
and within moments I went down tothe situation room, and Al Hay came
over with Cap Weinberger, the Secuaryof Defense, and we're trying to find
out what was going on. Andyou know, Al Hay got on the
line with a secure line of thesignal core line with the George Bush.

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George Bush was in the air.You know that that was the chaos we
had because we didn't know if therewas an international conspiracy or what. We
didn't who knew what was going onin the in the first few minutes plus,
we didn't know what the president's conditionwas. But Al Hay got on
the line with Bush and and thesort of secret code talk was communicating with

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him, and and then Hag sawthat in the press room Larry Speaks was
having trouble because the press were shoutingquestions at him. What was going on?
You know, how's the president?What's happened? And Al got all
upset, and so he surged outof the situation room and with Dick Allen,

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the security advisor, following him,and I was right behind the two
running up the stairs. And AlAl was a heavy smoker and had a
heart condition and at the time,and he ran up the stairs and got
all agitated, that's when he said, you know, I'm in control here,
and boy it was a chaotic day. Well, a lot of memories

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of that day. It's all inthe book. It's called Behind Closed Doors
in the room with Reagan and NixonKin Kachigi, and it was an aid
to Nixon and the chief speechwriter forRonald Reagan. A couple more quick questions.
We'll move quickly here, and againif you want to get a copy
of the book, it's called BehindClosed Doors. You wrote a piece a
couple of weeks ago about what youthought was happening behind the scenes with Joe
Biden obviously had that terrible debate performance, and you talked about his aids and

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how they wanted to keep power.I think his wife wanted to keep power.
I'm not sure what Joe Biden thoughtabout the whole thing, but give
me your thoughts. Well, mybelief was that the aids around him felt
that they had worked so hard togain the presidency and Biden it too,
but he had three pretty close aidsand including his informal chief of staff Joe

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Biden, and that they had workedso hard to climb up that greasy pole
success to win the presidency, andthen he had filled up in that first
debate, and they probably thought thatthey could probably overcome that, that they
probably overprepared him a little bit,and maybe there was overreaction going and they

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didn't want to let loose of thepower that they had attained the presidency.
And you know, after all,if he'd left the presidency, what's going
to happen to them, and what'sgoing to happen to the president? They
lose all the attachments they had tothe power of the presidency. And they
felt, hey, you know,let's just stick this out. We can
ride this out. Boss. We'vewritten this out before. You know,

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we've survived other crises, and youknow, they wrote us off back in
the primaries back in twenty twenty,and we survived that and we won the
presidency. We can survive this one. And basically, I felt that they
wanted to cling the power so muchthat they were going to hang in there.
They were in a circle of wagons, and so that was my theory

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at the time. And so Ireally was surprised that Biden packed it in,
But maybe he really was feeling atthe mental issues so bad and the
fatigue and just tired of fighting itand decided to pack it in. Yeah,
others speculation out there by a lotof folks that, you know,
Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, ChuckSchumer, kind of an unkept secret that

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they were really pushing him and eventhreatening him. Maybe some people said Nancy
Pelosi was a good copper bat coopand said, hey, either you go
the easy way of the hard way, invoking that maybe that twenty fifth Amendment
would happen. You've been on theinner circle of a White House. What
what do you say when you hearthat maybe those types of threats were being
bestowed on him by members of hisown party. Well, I think that's

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a factor too. I think thatthere's sort of a Chicago mafia out there
that you know, Axel Rod andPluff and Obama, all those Obama folks
out there. I don't think theyever cared for Biden all that much to
begin with. And and they withPelosi, who who now that she was

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out of power, saw this asa chance to show her power again,
said well here here's an opportunity toexercise power. Plus a plus, we're
at risk of losing a lot ofHouse seats and Senate seats because as Bozo
is hanging out, hanging on tothe presidency, so we can shove them

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out the door. And you know, this is a pure Washington our play,
and it's it's sort of tragic ina way that just a handful of
people can make those kinds of decisions, and plus you have the pressure coming
on from I think that some aclown like George Clooney can write an up

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ed and have that kind in theNew York Times and everybody thinks that he
has that kind of authority to movethe presidency. I was sickened by that
one by the boy. Lastly,one more quick question kN Kachiggi in his
book is that he's an aid toPresident Ronald Reagan, excuse me for chief
speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and aid toPresident Richard Nixon. His book is called

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Behind Closed Doors in the room withReagan and Nixon and the final couple of
you know, sixty seconds or sothat we have here, you've advised President,
you've been in the inner circle ofa president, a couple of presidents
here, what would your advice beto Trump? In this atmosphere they've changed
his opponent on him. He survivedan assassination attempt. Is there any advice

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that you could imagine if you werein the circle you'd be given him.
Yeah, take a deep breath forthe next couple of weeks. Don't overreact.
She's going to take a little She'sgetting a bump in the polls right
now because I think she's just asI said, she's a shiny new penny.
They're going to circle around her andshe's getting a lot of new support,

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and the press loves her now,and the Democrats love her because she's
not Joe Biden, and she's goingto move up in the polls. But
that's that's not going to last.And my advice to Trump is, don't
overreact, show some calm, showa presidential side of yourself, and that'll
serve you well. So don't overreactby harsh attacks and overreacting by being trying

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to brutalize her right now, becauseI think she'll self immolate herself at the
end of the day. Just lether self destruct. That's my advice.
Ken Katchiggy and the author of abook called Behind Closed Doors in the Room
with Reagan and Nixon. He wasan aide to President Richard Nixon and the
chief speech writer for Ronald Wilson O. Reagan. Again, the name of

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the book is Behind Closed Doors.kN Kotchigean. Ken, it's a pleasure
to have you on the program.I appreciate you hopping in. I gotta
go, but thanks for being apart of the show, Ken Kochigyan.
Behind Closed Doors is the name ofthe book. I got to take this
break, Laky on the radio,six hundred KCl