KTLA News: "Senator Robert F. Kennedy talks with reporters in Los Angeles" (1966)

[Silence]. [Plane engine noise]. [Inside terminal room noise]. [Unidentified Reporter #1] Senator, what significance do you read into  the Beame defeat in New York? Political significance? [Room noise]. [Senator Robert F. Kennedy] Well, it's just that uhm... more people voted for John Lindsay than Abe Beame. [Reporters laugh. Reporters talking over one another]. [Kennedy] I have uh....I haven't worked out my plans yet. [Unidentified Reporter #1] Are you disappointed, sir, that President   Johnson did not come forward with... [Kennedy] No. [Unidentified Reporter]...more vociferous support of Mr. Beame? [Kennedy] No, no. He was very vigorous and energetic for Mr. Beame. [Unidentified Reporter #1] So you just got those press reports that the President was not uh... [Kennedy] They must be...if that's the report out here it's inaccurate because he was very energetic. [Unidentified Reporter #2] ...staying with Mr. McCone tonight? [Kennedy] I'm staying with Mr. McCone. [Unidentified Reporter #2] Can we presume that you will discuss Watts with him? [Kennedy] I expect we...I shall. It's a matter that's of interest to me as obviously it is to him. [Unidentified Reporter #1] What do you think of  Mr. Lindsay's presidential possibilities now, Senator? In the wake of his victory in New York? [Room noise]. [Kennedy] Well, I think, he's always been a bright, energetic,  articulate figure in political life of the United States. [Unidentified Reporter #3] What does his uh... [Unidentified Reporter #1] ...think his chances are enhanced  considerably or substantially by uh...his...? [Kennedy] I just don't know about it. [Unidentified Reporter #3] What does his election do to politics in New York, Senator? [Room noise]. [Kennedy] Well it doesn't help the Democratic Party a great deal. [Unidentified Reporter #3] What about the Republicans? [Kennedy] I would think that probably it gives a major lift to the Republican Party in the City of New  York, the State of New York and across the country. [Silence]. [Airplane engine noise]. [Inside terminal room noise]. [Unidentified Reporter #3] Welcome, Senator...Mrs. Kennedy. Senator, what are you doing in town if we may ask? [Room noise]. [Kennedy] Well, I'm gonna speak at the University of Southern California and I'm going to speak  tomorrow at noon at the town meeting and then I'm gonna speak tomorrow night for some Democrats. [Unidentified Reporter #3] Do your plans include meeting with Princess Margaret while you're here? [Kennedy] No, they don't... [Room noise]. [Kennedy]...in what way do you mean? [Unidentified Reporter #3] Well uh...will he bear some impact up there? More than uh... [Kennedy] Yeah, I expect...it depends on  how he gets along with Governor Rockefeller. [Unidentified Reporter #1] You say that the Republican chances are...  Republican party looks better. Does...does that mean then that the Democratic party looks worse in New York  because of this defeat? Are you in any... [Kennedy] No, I uh... [Unidentified Reporter #1] ...trouble there? [Room noise]. [Kennedy] No, we've had uh...a few problems for a considerable period of time. I expect those reports of reached here. [Unidentified Reporter #1] Yes, they have. [Kennedy] So uh...and I expect...and I think that this... the defeat of the candidate for the Democratic Party certainly doesn't improve the situation and I think we're gonna have problems in the Democratic Party,  within...particularly within the city of New York which is split uh...for a period of time in the future. I hope that we become more united. I hope that we  are able to support some...uh...the kinds of candidates that will appeal of the people of the City of New York. I don't think that's been done as much as it should have been in the past. [Unidentified Reporter #4] ...Watts uh...there uh...it's uh...the riot [Kennedy] I made some comments  shortly afterwards. I have nothing to add to that. [Unidentified Reporter #2] Senator, Bob Novak in his column Monday spoke couples in California struggle over your appearance at the dinner tomorrow night struggle between Mr. Ano (?) and between the Congressman Brown and the Whitehall, would you comment on that? [Kennedy] Well, I don't...I'm not familiar with them. [Unidentified Reporter #2] Is there a struggle for you... [Kennedy] I don't know. I haven't found it. [Unidentified Reporter #5] Do you agree with Governor Rockefeller that you...the Kennedy's are on a collision course with uh...Lindsay? [Kennedy] No. [Unidentified Reporter #5] Do you see yourself... [Kennedy] Why...uh...why? [Unidentified Reporter #5] Do you see yourself emerging now as the leader of the Democratic Party? [Kennedy] I keep reading in the paper about every week  "that I've emerged as a leader" and then suddenly two weeks later they say "I finally emerged as  a leader at the Democratic Party." So I don't know. What happens to me in the interim period? [Unidentified Reporter #5] Are you willing to accept the mantle of leadership and... [Kennedy] No. I think there are a lot of people who are going to take some leadership and direction  in the Democratic Party, which I'm just one. [Unidentified Reporter #5] Will you make a major effort to uh... unite the party now? [Kennedy] I will join with anybody else that we can. Yes. [Unidentified Reporter #3] Senator, do you feel that the 89th Congress had it's arm twisted from the White House? [Kennedy] No. [Unidentified Reporter #3] Are you satisfied with the session   and the bills that were passed? [Kennedy] Yes. I think it was a very uh...  I think was an extraordinarily fine session. I think there's some unfinished business but I  think that uh...a great deal was accomplished. [Unidentified Reporter #3] Senator, this was your first one. How do you feel about your participation in it? [Room noise]. [Kennedy] Well I was uh...happy to be uh... pleased to be a part of it. [Unidentified Reporter #1] Senator, how do you  explain the seeming weakness of labor in this Congress, the greatest Democratic Congress since FDR? For instance in the uh...14 {B)... [Kennedy] No. But well of course, there....that's just one situation but the fact is that...I think labor and the members of  labor unions and...and those who are interested in... those who work throughout the country we  were strongly in favor of almost every matter, every bill that was passed by Congress. Whether  it was Medicare, whether it was federal aid to education or that was dealt...what was done with housing, whether it was the immigration law...labor uh... was strongly behind those measures and I think  had a material effect in their passage. [Unidentified Reporter #1] Well I had...I had reference to 14 (B). [Kennedy] Well, I don't think everything was passed. We didn't pass a minimum wage bill either, for instance. But uh... [Unidentified Reporter #1] Did the President push hard enough? Uh... [Kennedy] Yeah, I think he made an effort to... a real effort to try to pass 14 (B). [Unidentified Reporter #3] Do well feel that because labor  did not do well it might hurt the Democratic chances... [Kennedy] I don't think it did. I think that they... as I say I think they were strongly in favor of these measures as they have been for some period of time and uh...so I think that they...and they  played a very instrumental role in the passage of those uh...bills which have been considered for some  extended period of time in the past. [Unidentified Reporter #1] Do you feel the President then did  substantially discharge his obligation to labor in the matter of 14 (B)? [Kennedy] I, I wouldn't put it that way. I think that he was interested in  14 (B)- the repeal of 14 (B)- and he made an effort. [Unidentified Reporter #6] Senator... do you have any comment on Proposition 14 uh...the uh... that was passed in California outlawing... which made it impossible for fair housing [unintelligible]... [Kennedy] I'm not familiar with... [Unidentified Reporter #7] How do you interpret the tremendous Negro support for Lindsay and the Republicans in New York? [Room noise] [Kennedy] I don't think the Democrats didn't...made the kind of effort... in uh...areas of the city that uh... should have been made. [Unidentified Reporter #8] Senator, Barry Goldwater said your brother's trip to Vietnam... Ted would not know one end of a gun from another. Would you comment on Senator Goldwater's comment? [Room noise]. [Kennedy] No, I think it...course is...Senator Kennedy was in  the...my younger brother was in the Army for two years and uh...but I, I, I, I uh...I haven't come to  expect much more from Senator Goldwater. [Unidentified Reporter #8] He was also a critic, of course, of McNamara. Would you comment on that? [Kennedy] Well I think him...Secretary McNamara's a close  friend of mine...personal friend. I think has performed one of the outstanding services for  the public in this country. [Unidentified Reporter #3] Senator, how long would he be in town? [Kennedy] Oh at least tomorrow. [Unidentified Reporter #3] Thank you very much. [Kennedy] Thank you very much. [Unidentified Reporter #9] One final question, we get here a bit late...