No Disparaging Reagan, Sununu Warns

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, reflecting President Bush’s anger, has warned aides against “bad-mouthing” former President Ronald Reagan, a spokesman acknowledged today.

The controversy apparently was touched off by complaints from former President Richard M. Nixon. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, who also was spokesman under Reagan, was obviously angered in discussing the matter with reporters.

Fitzwater, who at one point accused a journalist of fabricating quotations, said Sununu had noted a report that some staffers were making disparaging remarks about Reagan and had cautioned them, “Don’t do it.”

One source was quoted as saying “Reagan would still be asleep” at 7 a.m., when Bush typically arrives at the Oval Office.

The spokesman disclosed the concern of Bush and Sununu in responding to an article by syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, which said Nixon “was so disturbed by what he read about Reagan-trashing inside the White House he fired off a protest” to Sununu.

Nixon was incensed, the columnists wrote, by a report from Knight-Ridder newspapers White House correspondent Owen Ullman that said Bush aides were depicting Reagan “as a dunce and making unflattering comparisons.”

Fitzwater today would not confirm any protest by Nixon but said, “The staff was told if (Ullman’s) story is correct it’s not helpful.” He added that anyone who would ridicule Reagan should not be working in the White House under the man who was Reagan’s vice president.

“I don’t know anybody who has been bad-mouthing Reagan,” Fitzwater argued, accusing Ullman of “making up the quotes. It’s a silly story. I don’t know if it happened.”

Ullman, who was present at the briefing in the White House press room, shot back immediately that Fitzwater was challenging his “integrity.” The spokesman responded, “In that case I apologize. I just disagree.”

Ullman later told fellow reporters that he did not want to comment further but said, “Everyone here knows I don’t make up quotes.”

Nixon reportedly told Sununu that the source of Ullman’s report should be fired as an example to other staffers tempted “to play the same game.”

Fitzwater called the reports “irrelevant” but emphasized, “President Bush would not want any idea to prevail (that) this is going on. . . . We take it seriously in human terms.”

Fitzwater added: “In my opinion, history will treat (Reagan) as one of the greatest Presidents ever. Everyone here certainly believes that.”