John Dean Quotes in Nixon (1995)

John Dean: Can I ask you a question? How the hell do you have the temerity to blackmail the President of the United States?

E. Howard Hunt: That's not the question, John. The question is: why is he paying?

John Dean: There's a cancer in the presidency and it's growing.

John Dean: This is the sort of thing that Mafia people can do, washing money and so forth. We just don't know about these things because we're not criminals.

[Nixon awkwardly puts his arm around John Dean, his legal counsel]

Richard M. Nixon: John, I want you to get away from this madhouse, these reporters, and go up to Camp David for the weekend. And I want you to write up a report. I want you to put everything you know about Watergate in there.

John Dean: You want me to put it all in writing. Over my signature.

Richard M. Nixon: Well, nobody knows more about this thing than you do, John. The details, that stuff, I don't know about.

[a pause]

John Dean: Sir, I'm not going to be the scapegoat for this. Haldeman and Ehrlichman are in just as deep as me.

Betsy Jobs: Are you the President's dog trainer?

John Dean: I'm John Dean, Chief White House Counsel.

Betsy Jobs: Oh. That's too bad.