White House Diaries

Thursday, February 26, 1987

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At 10 A.M. recvd. the Tower report—almost 300 pages. We had about a 45 min. brief but I wont really know what’s in it til I’ve read it. At 11 A.M. over to E.O.B. with the 3 members of the commission—hundreds of media. I made a statement, turned the meeting over to John Tower & left with all of them screaming Q’s at me—Sam D. the loudest. Went to T.V. set & watched John, Ed M. & Brent S. field Q’s. Press obviously was seeking answers that would let them keep on their distortions & this lynch party. Now I’ve got to read the report.

Lunch with V.P.—he met with Don R. and for 1st time the side of him he hadn’t seen—the outburst of temper. Finally he snarled he’d be out of here by Mon. or Tues. I went upstairs for a meeting with Paul Laxalt. It was a good meeting with an old friend. Paul took himself out of contention for Don’s job. Said he might want to run for Pres. & didn’t want to take himself out of the running by taking this job. His candidate is former Sen. Howard Baker. It’s not a bad idea. He thinks Howard is looking for a graceful way of getting out of running for Pres. I’d probably take some lumps from our right wingers but I can handle that.

V.P. just came up—another meeting with Don. This time totally different. He says he’ll hand in his resignation 1st thing Mon. morning. My prayers have really been answered. And this answer continued. I called Ed M. to let him know I was going to ask Howard Baker to become Chief of Staff. Ed approved heartily. Howard was in Fla. visiting his grand children. When he called back I asked him to take the job. Paul was right—he accepted immediately & is coming to Wash. tomorrow. Now I’ll go on reading the “Report” til I fall asleep. Thank you God.