Name: David Letterman on Meeting Richard Nixon
Uploaded: 2022-11-03T15:37:40.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman on Meeting Richard Nixon' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-11-03. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'David Letterman on Meeting Richard Nixon' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-11-03. Transcript available.

-Why did you leave Indiana?
-Because I had worked at a television station
for five or six years, and I was getting tired of that.
I mean, it was fun being on TV.
And then I went to a radio station
and worked there for a year,
and that was right during Watergate.
And people would call up and ask me questions
about Watergate, and I didn't know.
I just -- I couldn't answer it.
But I met Richard Nixon --
-No, you didn't. -Yes, after he left office.
-How does it come about that you meet Richard Nixon?
-We had a guy who worked on our show, Frank Gannon,
who had worked with Diane Sawyer
as they were speechwriters for the Nixon administration.
And Frank had maintained a nice relationship
with the former president,
and he was on the Today Show talking to Bryant Gumbel.
And so he said to me, after we got done taping our show,
he said, "Brian Gumbel is taping these interviews
with Richard Nixon, would you like to come up and meet him?"
And I said, "Yes, of course I would like to come up and meet him."
Now, a friend of mine had been on our show named Jeff Altman.
And Jeff Altman loved Richard Nixon, loved everything about him,
loved what he looked like, loved what he sounded like.
Just he was fascinated by Richard Nixon.
So I said, "Hey, Jeff, let's go up and we'll meet Richard Nixon."
And he said, "Oh my God, yes."
So we go up there, and now it's Frank, myself, Jeff Altman.
And we walk in, and there was a little green room waiting area,
and Richard Nixon jumps to his feet.
And my first impression was he was a taller man than I thought.
He seemed to be about six feet tall,
and I always envisioned him as sort of hunched over and such.
But he was tall.
And the other great, perhaps greater surprise,
was he was very charming.
Oh, Frank!
He was so happy to see Frank.
And he patted Frank on the shoulder and this and that.
And we introduced everybody around, and Jeff Altman.
And he was talking about Angels baseball
and about how much he loved Kearney Lansford.
And it was going quite well.
And then Frank said to the former president,
"Mr. President, what are they talking to you about?"
He said, "Oh, you know, it's the usual deep throat."
It's not much of a Nixon.
They want to know who deep throat was.
And so he's just kind of fomfering around about deep throat,
but in a jocular fashion.
And then after that sort of settled down,
he looked at Frank right in the eyes and he said,
"It wasn't you, was it Frank?"
And it was just --
I mean, for my friend Jeff, for me, for everybody,
it was delightful.
Because he was serious.
Yeah.
Who knows if he was serious?
I don't know.
Wasn't you?
Wasn't Frank?
You don't know Frank Gannon.
I know Jeff.
I know Jeff.
I know Jeff.
It's so bizarre to think of Frank Gannon as deep throat.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Straight to the heart.
I've been a long time acting like I was a broken part by you.
I've been a long time acting like I was a broken part by you.
I've been a long time acting like I was a long time acting like I was a man and
a man.
And it says now, when Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy broke into the Watergate
Hotel,
they were wearing wigs and listening devices.
And Richard Nixon goes, "Well, I suppose you could say they were wearing
listening devices,
or perhaps you'd call them hearing devices and wigs."