Nixon Asked for More 'Attractive Women' in GOP

Richard Nixon felt the Republican Party needed more “attractive women,” newly released Oval Office tapes reveal. In a phone conversation with George HW Bush (then Republican National Committee chairman) Nixon describes seeing two “very attractive women” in the South Carolina legislature, the Los Angeles Times reports. “God,” he tells Bush, “let’s look for some. I think maybe a woman might win someplace where a man might not.”

The recordings also reveal Nixon’s views on the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the New York Times adds. Nixon worried that allowing abortion could foster general cultural “permissiveness” and “break the family.” Nonetheless, Nixon also acknowledged that abortion could be necessary—such as in the case of an interracial pregnancy, Nixon told an aide, “or a rape.” (More Richard Nixon stories.)