Q: Did you change your mind about President Nixon now that it has been proven that he cheated on his income taxes?

A:If anybody is even a little bit acquainted with the income tax laws, he knows that they have so many nuances of interpretation, that if you get a mean judge, he could convict almost anybody of income tax evasion on technicalities. And that’s besides the fact that he could actually convict most people outright for straight out fraud. If investigations were made on everybody, most people would be behind bars. This is well-known.

What are accountants for? Not to give the government its due. An accountant is there to see how much he can keep out of the hands of the government. But even when an accountant is perfectly honest and his report doesn’t hold back anything, still there are so many shades of meaning in the tax codes. You know that many of these cases have gone in front of the courts. Income tax cases are constantly coming up in front of the Supreme Court, which means that the laws are open to interpretation. One court says this and then it’s overturned. And then it’s appealed and it’s overturned again. Nixon didn’t cheat on his income taxes. He had some of the best accountants in the country, you can be sure of that. And their interpretation was one way. But once these eagle-eyes hawk liberals are after him, so anything that he does is interpreted to his discredit. And therefore they forced him to pay. He could have fought it in the courts. Absolutely he could have fought this case in the courts. But he didn’t want to. It wasn’t worth it. That’s why he paid.

Now, on the subject of the tapes, we have to realize that America is actually running wild. To take tapes of a president’s private conversations and to broadcast them on the radio for everyone to hear — that means that America has hit a new low. Never before has there been such a disgrace.

And therefore, we have to keep our heads above water. There is a flood of wickedness that is sweeping the country. And it’s a craze. It’s not a rational thing. Just because the Democrats couldn’t win at the ballot box, they’re trying to recoup their losses in Congress through impeachment.

On this subject, you have to know that the public are nothing but the victims of the media. I have told you many times that you are all the victims of the radio and the newspapers. But if we were able to judge the situation impartially, you’d see that President Nixon is actually one of the great presidents. He is a victim of persecution. And I think that every Jew should speak up. Every Jew should take his cue, not from the mischievous men on the radio and television, but he should take his cue from the Gedolei Yisroel, and he should be מתפלל בשלומה של מלכות. You should pray for the welfare of the President and his government. I think we all ought to write a little note to President Nixon. Address it to President Nixon, White House, Washington D.C. and write: “President Nixon, we are with you.” And put the date on it so that he shouldn’t think that it was a week ago that you wrote it. No, you’re writing it today, after the news came out. “President Nixon, we are with you!” And if you can also write some other notes to his opponents, telling them what to do, then do it. And if you want to tell them where to go, you can do that too.

TAPE # 59 (April 1974)