Video: 'Nixon's Bitter Concession Speech'

(Wednesday, November 7, 1962, morning PST; during Richard Nixon’s November 1962 press conference following the 1962 California gubernatorial election) — The day after losing his bid for governor of California to Democratic incumbent Pat Brown by 51.9 to 46.9 percent, a bitter former Vice President Richard Nixon lashed out at reporters today at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, proclaiming that “you don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”

Video: 'Richard Nixon's "Last" Press Conference (1962)'

A tired-looking Nixon spoke with a quavering voice, delivered what was described as a “15-minute monologue.”

He spent most of the talk criticizing the press, his remarks interrupted only by brief interjections from reporters, but he acknowledged well into his remarks that the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 did not allow his campaign to get his message across during the final two weeks in his election bid.

Video: 'Concession (Los Angeles, November 7, 1962)'

Nixon began his remarks by stating that “now that all the members of the press are so delighted that I have lost, I’d like to make a statement of my own.” Nixon insisted that the press had attacked him since 1948 following the Alger Hiss case.

Video: 'JFK and Edmund 'Pat' Brown Discuss Richard Nixon's 'Last' Press Conference'

He said: “I leave you gentlemen now. And you will now write it. You will interpret it. That’s your right. But as I leave you, I want you to know: just think how much you’re going to be missing. You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”