According to The Clothes Have No Emperor, Reagan gave that initial Iran/Contra denial on 11/13/86, and an LA Times poll showed that 79% didn't believe him. So a second press conference is scheduled for 11/19. Discussing this with the White House press corps a day earlier, Spokesman Larry (I got my job because of my Name) Speakes tells them: "We can guess 99 out of 100 times the questions that you guys pose."
Sam Donaldson quips back, "Yeah, but you can never guess what he's gonna answer."
Later in his press conference Reagan says four times that Israel had no involvement. But before taking questions he renegs and says, "there may be some misunderstanding of one of my answers tonight. There was a third country involved in our secret project with Iran." Oh really? Then why'd you deny it FOUR TIMES!?
By the 25th Reagan appears in the briefing room to say that NSC Adviser John Poindexter resigned & Oliver North had been fired. He then lets Edwin Meese explain the rest. "Certain monies...have been made available to the forces...opposing the Sandinista government. We don't know the exact amount yet. The President knew nothing about it."
Later Reagan personally calls Ollie North & tells him, "This is going to make a great movie one day."
