Riding high in the 1972 pre-election polls, President Nixon paused to assess the state of the Watergate cover-up. Telling White House chief of staff H. R. "Bob" Haldeman he was "not that worried about it," Nixon still recognized the need to reward the Watergate burglars with hush money. Those men "took a hell of a risk and they have to be paid. That's all there is to that," Nixon said.