ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON PREMIERE OF “60 MINUTES” THIS SUNDAY, JOHN MCCAIN SAYS HE LEFT HIS DOCTOR AFTER A ROUTINE CHECK-UP ONLY TO BE CALLED ON THE WAY HOME: “YOU’VE GOT TO COME BACK…IT’S VERY SERIOUS”
Sen. John McCain tells Lesley Stahl about the moment he knew he was suffering from one of the most virulent and deadly forms of brain cancer. The Arizona Republican speaks to Stahl in an interview about his diagnosis and Washington politics. The interview will be broadcast on the 50th anniversary season premiere of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, Sept. 24 (7:30-8:30 PM, ET/7:00-8:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network.
McCain left his doctor’s office at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix after a routine check-up only to be called on the phone shortly after leaving. He was informed he had a blood clot over his left eye. He says his doctor told him, “‘You’ve got to come back.’ And I said, ‘Hey, today’s Friday. I’ll just come in on Monday.’ And she said, ‘No, you have to come now. It’s very serious.’… They thought it was serious enough that they had to act immediately.” Watch the excerpt.
Before his operation, the doctor did mention glioblastoma but didn’t tell him everything. “As you know, doctors are interesting,” he tells Stahl. Glioblastoma is strain of tumor that is aggressive and nearly always fatal.
But, says McCain, I kept saying to them, “Tell it to me straight. [And the doctors say] ‘Well, there’s always this. There’s always that.’ You know, and – and I said, ‘I can take it. Just tell me.’ And – and then they were more forthcoming.”
Days after his operation, lab results confirmed the diagnosis. “They said that the prognosis is very, very serious. Some say 3%, some say 14%. You know, it’s—it’s a very poor prognosis,” recalls McCain. “So I just said, ‘I understand. Now we’re going to do what we can, get the best doctors we can find and do the best we can.’ And at the same time celebrate with gratitude a life well lived.”
Cindy, McCain’s wife of 37 years, is also interviewed.
LISTINGS FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON OF “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY, SEPT. 24
HURRICANE – In the midst of all the recent powerful storms, Scott Pelley looks at Harvey’s destruction in Houston to better understand the conditions and impact such weather will have on cities in the future. Robert G. Anderson and Ashley Velie are the producers.
THE FIGHTER – Lesley Stahl talks to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) about his health and politics in Washington. The senator reveals how he learned he had the deadly brain tumor he is now being treated for. Richard Bonin is the producer.
DIVIDED – In her first story for 60 MINUTES, Oprah Winfrey explores the political divide that’s currently stirring America. Magalie Laguerre-Wilkinson, Graham Messick, Tanya Simon and Jack Weingart are the producers.
SCOTT PELLEY REPORTS ON HURRICANE DESTRUCTION, LESLEY STAHL INTERVIEWS SEN. JOHN MCCAIN AND OPRAH WINFREY EXPLORES THE AMERICAN POLITICAL DIVIDE, ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON PREMIERE OF “60 MINUTES,” SUNDAY
The 50th anniversary season premiere of 60 MINUTES will be broadcast on Sunday, Sept. 24 (7:30-8:30 PM, ET/7:00-8:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network. The program will feature stories from Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl and the debut of Oprah Winfrey as special contributor.
In the midst of all the recent powerful storms, Pelley looks at Harvey’s destruction in Houston to better understand the conditions and impact such weather will have on cities in the future.
Lesley Stahl talks to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) about his health and politics in Washington. The senator reveals how he learned he had the deadly brain tumor, for which he is now being treated.
In her first story for 60 MINUTES, Winfrey will explore the political divide that’s currently stirring America.
60 MINUTES began its first season on Sept. 24, 1968. Watch the clip.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, AUGUST 27
BLOOMBERG – Steve Kroft profiles the billionaire media mogul and three-term mayor of New York who was considered presidential timber. Maria Gavrilovic is the producer.
COOK COUNTY JAIL – Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart runs one of the largest jails in the country, located in Chicago, where the murder rate is one of the highest. But it’s his unconventional and controversial style that puts him in the spotlight. Lesley Stahl reports. Deirdre Cohen is the producer.
THE KING OF CROSSFIT -- Sharyn Alfonsi profiles Greg Glassman, a brash former gymnast who created the CrossFit workout, now the basis for a chain of gyms that has become the largest in history and a powerful athletic brand known around the world. Keith Sharman is the producer
These previously broadcast stories have been updated for this summer edition of 60 MINUTES.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, AUGUST 20
ATTACK ON GARLAND – Two homegrown jihadists’ attack on a Texas Muhammad cartoon contest demonstrates how hard it is to prevent a terrorist attack even when one of the terrorists has been identified. Anderson Cooper reports. Graham Messick and Steve McCarthy are the producers.
THE COMING SWARM – David Martin gets a look at what the future battlefield may look like when he reports on experimental, autonomous drones that can ferret out enemies and coordinate weapons strikes against them. Mary Walsh is the producer.
LOST –The real lost-and-found story of Saroo Brierley, the man who inspired the powerful new film “Lion.” Hopelessly lost in India as a 5-year-old, Brierley was adopted by Australian parents only to find his home and his birth mother decades later. He tells his story to Bill Whitaker. Marc Lieberman is the producer.
These previously broadcast segments have been updated for this summer edition.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, JULY 16
THE HOSTAGE POLICY – Lesley Stahl speaks to the parents of a slain hostage and to a government official on the controversial policy the U.S. government follows when an American is held for ransom – a policy that is changing. Richard Bonin and Ayesha Siddiqi are the producers.
OUT OF DARKNESS – Bill Whitaker reports from Burma, also known as Myanmar, where two eye surgeons were employing their program that has already reversed blindness in over 4 million people and could help to eliminate cataract and other reversible blindness in the developing world. Rachael Morehouse and Henry Schuster are the producers.
ENEMY OF THE STATE – Ai Weiwei’s provocative art has gotten him harassed by police, thrown in detention and driven out of China. But in order to be relevant, he must be political, he tells Holly Williams. Michael Gavshon and David M. Levine are the producers.
The above are updated segments previously broadcast on 60 MINUTES.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, JULY 2
IN GOD’S NAME – A young Muslim man who grew up in the heart of America tells Scott Pelley what made him try to join ISIS in Syria. Abdirizak Warsame speaks in his first interview. Robert Anderson and Patricia Milton are the producers.
SAVING THE LIONS – Thirty-three circus lions that lived lives of beatings and confinement, according to the animal rights advocates who rescued them, are airlifted to a comfortable, peaceful retirement in a sanctuary in South Africa. 60 MINUTES cameras followed the big cats’ journey, and Bill Whitaker speaks to their saviors. Robert Anderson and Aaron Weisz are the producers.
THE MUSIC OF ZOMBA PRISON – Beautiful music created by inmates and their guards offers happiness and hope behind prison walls. Anderson Cooper reports from Malawi, Africa, where the Zomba Prison Project is making a difference. Michael Gavshon and David Levine are the producers.
These previously broadcast segments have been updated for this summer edition.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 25
ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE – It helps us drive our cars, use our cell phones and socialize online, but artificial intelligence is also making a big difference in cancer care, too. And that may be just the tip of the iceberg. Charlie Rose reports on the technology that’s beginning to change the world. Nichole Marks is the producer. THIS IS A DOUBLE LENGTH SEGMENT.
JAPAN’S BABE RUTH – The best pitcher in Japanese professional baseball is also one of its best hitters. Shohei Ohtani is a 22-year-old phenomenon who throws fireballs and hits humongous home runs – and he may be coming to America’s Major Leagues as early as next season. Jon Wertheim reports. Nathalie Sommer is the producer.
These previously broadcast segments have been updated for this summer edition.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 18
THE WHITE HELMETS – Even more would have perished in the Syrian Civil War if not for the volunteers of the Syrian Civil Defense, who call themselves “The White Helmets.” Scott Pelley talks to these first responders who are primarily known for digging out civilians trapped in the rubble of their homes, the victims of the regime’s cruel bombing campaign. Nicole Young and Katie Kerbstat are the producers.
PASSPORTS FOR SALE – Steve Kroft reports on how small cash-starved countries, such as the island nations of Antigua and Dominica, offer citizenship for a price, creating ways to ease travel for international citizens, including those running from the law. Graham Messick is the producer.
CHESS COUNTRY – In rural Franklin County, Miss., a chess program has not only created a state championship team, but broadened the outlooks of hundreds of school children, while lifting the hopes of their parents and community. Sharyn Alfonsi reports. Draggan Mihailovich and Laura Dodd are the producers.
The above are updated segments previously broadcast on 60 MINUTES.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 11
THE NORTH KOREAN THREAT – A defector from North Korea tells Bill Whitaker that the U.S. shouldn’t underestimate Kim Jung Un’s military threat. 60 MINUTES goes to the front lines where the first casualties would be taken. Guy Campanile and Andrew Bast are the producers.
BRAIN HACKING – Why can't we stop looking at our smartphones? And are the designers of the apps and content on them using brain science to keep us hooked? Anderson Cooper reports from California and meets tech insiders, including software programmer Tristan Harris, who says phones are habit-forming in the same way as slot machines. Guy Campanile and Andrew Bast are the producers.
BRUNO MARS – The chart-topping music superstar takes Lara Logan back to his Hawaiian roots and into the creative process he uses to write megahits like “Uptown Funk” and “24K Magic.” John Hamlin is the producer.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 4
POISONED – A Russian opposition activist has been brought to the brink of death twice by a mysterious toxin. Vladimir Kara-Murza is just one of several Kremlin critics who have been the victims of unsolved shootings, suicides and poisonings. Lesley Stahl reports. Shachar Bar-On and Alexandra Poolos are the producers.
CHIEF OF CHOBANI – Steve Kroft profiles Chobani yogurt billionaire Hamdi Ulukaya, whose hiring of refugees has not only helped them, but helped grow the biggest brand of Greek yogurt in the U.S. Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados are the producers.
GORILLA DOCTORS -- 60 MINUTES goes to the heart of Africa to follow “gorilla doctors” as they respond to sightings of sick or injured gorillas, which they then tranquilize and treat in the field. Their efforts have saved gorillas and put the once diminishing population on the rebound. Lara Logan reports. Max McClellan is the producer.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MAY 28
A SURVIVOR’S MARCH – Ben Skardon survived the Bataan Death March and is now 99, but he was still able to perform his ritual at the Annual Bataan Memorial Death March marathon. 60 MINUTES accompanied the decorated vet on his 8.5 mile walk over the course’s rugged terrain as he remembers the thousands who died on the march the Japanese forced him and his fellow prisoners to make in 1942. Sharyn Alfonsi reports. Draggan Mihailovich is the producer.
IN THE PATH OF FIRE – As more Americans live closer to the nation’s wildernesses, their homes are at greater risk from wildfires that are on the rise due to droughts and climate change. The federal government is spending billions of dollars to protect homes, but property owners can be more effective with simple maintenance. Steve Inskeep reports. David Schneider and Joyce Gesundheit are the producers.
LIFE IN OUTER SPACE – NASA has partnered with a Las Vegas entrepreneur to design large, lightweight structures that inflate in space – a technology that could dramatically change how humans live and work in zero gravity. Lara Logan reports. Max McClellan is the producer.
AN INSPIRING HERO TO APPEAR ON “60 MINUTES” THIS MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
Ben Skardon, then 98, walking the 2016 Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. PHOTO CREDIT: Ken Scar
Ben Skardon plans on walking the Bataan Memorial Death March in 2018 – when he’ll be 100 years old. He continues to awe and inspire other marchers who have to wonder what’s more remarkable: Skardon’s surviving the cruel World War II march as a young man, or his continuing participation in the memorial event as he approaches a century of age. He’s been walking in the Bataan Memorial Death March for 10 years and is the only survivor of the infamous 1942 march to do so. Sharyn Alfonsi walked with Skardon in New Mexico last year for a story that will be featured on the Memorial Day Weekend edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, May 28 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Watch the excerpt.
The retired Army Col. is one of about 100 survivors of one of World War II’s most notorious war atrocities, in which the Japanese forced tens of thousands of Filipino and American prisoners to march 66 miles in 95-degree heat. Thousands died. Skardon walks eight miles or so in the commemorative event held at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
“Out here, you look wide, there’s not a fence in sight. No guards. You could almost say there’s immense freedom,” says Skardon, recalling the prison camp they were marched to. Many died there, too. Skardon survived beriberi, a serious vitamin deficiency that sometimes causes death.
60 MINUTES followed him in 2016 to tell his remarkable story of survival and the inspiring way he is still able to walk in memory of his comrades who died during the march 75 years ago. “It’s also about people that I knew who were like brothers to me and not a single one of them got back. I’m very lucky, and this is something to me that is obligatory.”
Just don’t call him a hero. “Don’t even say that word in my presence. I’m not a hero. It’s not how much you suffer. That’s not, doesn’t make you a hero,” he tells a surprised Alfonsi.
Skardon lives in Clemson, S.C., near the university where he taught English for 19 years and graduated from in 1938. Alfonsi also interviews him in his home and on a walk on the campus of Clemson. They stopped at a memorial to the university’s war dead. Pointing to it, Skardon says, “They are the true heroes, I suppose you could say.”
Skardon walked again this past March in 90-degree heat. With a just a few short rest stops, he walked 8 ½ miles.
PHILADELPHIA MINISTER OFFERING SANCTUARY TO AN IMMIGRANT SAYS WHEN LAWS BREAK GOD’S PEOPLE’S BACKS, TIME TO MULL “BREAKING THOSE LAWS” – “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY
With an Undocumented Immigrant Living in Church Basement,
“We Don’t Know What’s Going to Happen”
The Rev. Robin Hynicka and his congregation are certainly circumventing U.S. immigration law by sheltering an illegal immigrant inside the Arch St. Methodist Church in Philadelphia. But Rev. Hynicka answers to a higher law. He says the immigration policy ordering the deportation of Javier Flores Garcia is unjust – a law God gives him the power to question – and he’s not the only cleric in the U.S. who feels and acts this way. As Scott Pelley reports, Arch St. Methodist is just one of more than 800 churches and synagogues offering sanctuary to illegal immigrants in response to the new crack down ordered by the Trump administration. Pelley’s report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, May 21 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
“When a law breaks the backs of God’s people then it's time for us to think about breaking those laws,” says Rev. Hynicka. Flores Garcia has three children who are U.S. citizens, so to avoid a separation, he moved into Arch St. Church. He has lived in the U.S. for 20 years and has a decade-old DUI on his record. For that and repeatedly crossing the border, a judge ordered him deported.
Rev. Hynicka says man’s law in this case goes against God’s law. “It’s injustice and oppression all of which is evil,” he tells Pelley. “When a human being’s human rights are denied, when they can’t stay with their family, when they can’t work, when they can’t participate in the community in which they have deep roots, all of those apply.” Watch the excerpt.
As the deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), it’s Daniel Ragsdale’s job to uphold this law. But he understands the human part of this mini-rebellion by the clergy. “As a human being, I know it is traumatic for folks,” says Ragsdale. “But I will also say that the rule of law is something that America is built on.”
Ragsdale says people like Flores Garcia should report to the authorities. When Pelley says that would get such persons deported, Ragsdale acknowledges he has a duty to do just that. Then he tells Pelley, “I would suggest that every person who has…come to the United States illegally, just like if I went somewhere and…resided in violation of law, I could expect at some point that sovereign country to want to remove me.”
Federal agents can arrest Flores in the church, but ICE has a decades-long policy of avoiding places of worship, schools and hospitals.
Philadelphia is one of 600 cities and counties that have declared themselves “sanctuary cities,” whose police will not ask detainees their immigration status, nor hold immigrants for the federal government if it wants to deport them. Mayor Jim Kenney tells Pelley that the city is upholding the U.S. Constitution by protecting immigrant’s rights. There are an estimated 11 million people in the U.S. who could, like Flores Garcia, be deported under the right conditions. There are 6,000 ICE officers who work on detentions and removals.
Rev. Hynicka knows what God wants, but with man’s laws in the mix, he can’t be sure of what will happen to Flores Garcia. “We’re taking a leap of faith, right, in many respects, because we don’t know what's going to happen,” he tells Pelley.
THE CALIFORNIA D.A. UNDER SCRUTINY FOR USE OF JAILHOUSE SNITCHES DISPUTES ALLEGATIONS BY HIS OWN INFORMANT WHO SPOKE TO “60 MINUTES” – SUNDAY
Mark Cleveland Says He Has Been Used Regularly as an Informant by Law Enforcement
Who do you believe: Veteran Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckus or his own jailhouse informant? Rackauckas tells 60 MINUTES there is no jailhouse informant program in Orange County, but his office and the county sheriff’s department are under federal and state scrutiny for allegedly directing a covert and possibly illegal informant operation. Mark Cleveland, a self-described professional “snitch,” says he participated in such a program for years and could call “Tony” anytime from jail with information. Cleveland also tells 60 MINUTES informants like him aren’t trusted enough to testify in court because – and Rackauckas will tell you, too – they lie. Sharyn Alfonsi reports from Orange Country on the controversial use of jailhouse informants, on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, May 21 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Cleveland says he was arrested more than 100 times and eventually came to be used as a snitch regularly by prosecutors in DA Rackauckas’ office. He says that he and others were placed in cells with or near defendants from whom prosecutors wanted incriminating information. “I was working right there with Tony. I would call him up and he loved it. Every time I’d call him, ‘Oh, you know, this is great. We really appreciate it,’” Cleveland claims Rackauckas said. Cleveland says the OCDA’s office helped get time off his jail sentence in exchange for the information he provided.
Rackauckas says he remembers Cleveland being “an informant many years ago in a case or two,” but adds that Cleveland’s story about regularly calling him on the phone is “fantasy.” Rackauckas warns Alfonsi that during any conversation with Cleveland, “you should assume you’re talking to an informant. And if he’s talking, he’s probably lying.” Watch the clip.
Cleveland claims he is telling the truth to 60 MINUTES, but acknowledges he has a credibility problem. “Oh, snitches do lie every opportunity they-- if they need to, they will. It's about getting out of jail. What do I have to do to get out of jail,” he tells Alfonsi.
Federal and state authorities are looking into the use of informants in Orange County as the result of a high profile case. Scott Dekraai confessed to shooting to death his former wife and seven other victims in a rage. But when additional evidence against him was obtained with the help of a jailhouse informant named Fernando Perez, Dekraai’s public defender, Scott Sanders, saw a pattern and blew a whistle. Sanders had another client on whom Perez had also informed, before Dekraai. Sanders accused authorities of illegally placing Perez next to his client and then covering it up by trying to suppress Perez’ long resume as an informant.
“Fernando Perez was not deliberately placed next to Dekraai in the Orange County Jail,” responds Rackauckas. “Dekraai was…put there on a nurse's order and Fernando Perez had already been there.” Pressed by Alfonsi that it still looked suspicious, Rackauckas replies, “It was just a coincidence.”
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MAY 21
7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT
SANCTUARY – Scott Pelley reports on so called “sanctuary cities,” where authorities have openly defied tough, new immigrant policies and religious leaders are offering their churches to illegal immigrants for sanctuary. Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados are the producers.
COOK COUNTY JAIL – Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart runs one of the largest jails in the country, located in Chicago, where the murder rate is the highest. But it’s his unconventional and controversial style that puts him in the spotlight. Lesley Stahl reports. Deirdre Cohen is the producer.
ENEMY OF THE STATE -- Ai Weiwei’s provocative art has gotten him harassed by police, thrown in detention and driven out of China. But in order to be relevant, he must be political, he tells Holly Williams. Michael Gavshon and David M. Levine are the producers.
8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT
OPERATION CAR WASH – The clues began at a gas station, beginning a massive corruption scandal, involving billions in bribes and scores of politicians, that is making heroes out of a busy group of prosecutors and a brave Brazilian judge. Anderson Cooper reports from Brazil. Andy Court is the producer.
SNITCHES – Controversial and sometimes illegal, the use of jailhouse informants in Orange County, Calif., has drawn the scrutiny of federal and state authorities. Sharyn Alfonsi talks to a “snitch” and to the D.A. who has used them. Howard L. Rosenberg is the producer.
SPACE ARCHEOLOGY – Locating archeological sites for excavation can be a time-consuming and sometimes futile endeavor. But Sarah Parcak uses a new method that utilizes satellite imagery to find ancient sites that can't be easily found on the ground. Bill Whitaker reports from Egypt. David Schneider and Joyce Gesundheit are the producers.
ART THAT’S RELEVANT IS POLITICAL, SAYS PROVOCATIVE CHINESE ARTIST AI WEIWEI, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Ai Weiwei has paid dearly for his art. The Chinese government has beaten and jailed him, eventually driving him out of China, for his provocative work aimed at political authority. But despite the danger, he must be political to be relevant, he tells Holly Williams for a 60 MINUTES profile to be broadcast Sunday, May 21 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Watch the clip.
The globally recognized, wealthy artist now lives in Berlin, he says, for the safety of his young son. But he doesn’t rule out returning to his homeland, where authorities tried to wipe his name and art from the public’s view for his controversial expressions. In one instance, he published photos of himself giving the middle finger to an image of China’s former dictator Mao Zedong. Is he an artist or an activist?
“I think artist and activist is the same thing,” Ai tells Williams. “As an artist, you always have to be an activist.” And to be a good artist, you need to be political, he says. “I think every art, if it’s relevant, is political.”
Ai spent time in New York City in the early 1980s, drawing inspiration from Andy Warhol and others. He made a meager living off of street art and returned to China after a decade, where he began to draw a lot of attention. In one performance-based work, he smashed a 2,000-year-old vase to symbolize the shattering of the Communist Party’s version of history. Reminded by Williams that the urn was considered a priceless part of history by many Chinese, the artist responds, “For me to smash it is a valuable act.”
His art now sells for prices in the millions, but much of his work cannot be purchased. When the Chinese government suppressed earthquake death counts of children who died under the rubble of shoddily built government schools, Ai ran a “citizen’s investigation” that shamed and angered the government. He published the dead children’s names on a website and had activists interview their parents. Ai was beaten severely by police.
He angered officials again when he trained his own cameras on people the government sent to surveil him, making them look silly. This time he went to jail and had his passport revoked. Cleverly, Ai once again outsmarted his antagonists when he was released. He recreated his jail cell in an art installation that got so much attention that the Chinese authorities returned his passport. He left for Berlin.
It might be dangerous for him to return to China. Will he ever give up his activism? “Never….to freely express myself, to tell the truth…It’s part of my life.”
BIN LADEN DOCUMENTS REVEAL A LOVING, VENGEFUL SON WHO MIGHT TAKE HIS FATHER’S ROLE ATOP AN AL QAEDA THAT’S STRONGER THAN EVER, SAYS EX-FBI AGENT ON “60 MINUTES”
“I Don’t Believe Even Bin Laden in His Wildest Dreams Thought that He Will Have Followers Who Command Armies, Troops,” Says Former Agent Ali Soufan
Personal letters seized in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden reveal the Al Qaeda leader’s son, Hamza, to be a young man who adores his father and wants to carry on his murderous ideology. That son today is poised to lead a stronger, larger Al Qaeda and is bent on avenging his dad’s death, says an ex-FBI agent familiar with those documents. Holly Williams interviews Ali Soufan, the former FBI agent who was the bureau’s lead investigator of Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks, on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, May 14 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Soufan describes a letter from Hamza that was collected in the raid and now declassified. “He tells him that…he remembers every look…every smile you gave me, every word you told me.” Hamza would be about 28 years old now and wrote the letter when he was 22 and had not seen his father in several years. Hamza also wrote this: “I consider myself to be forged in steel…The path of jihad for the sake of God is what we live.”
Hamza’s potential as a leader was recognized years ago when he was still a boy, says Soufan. The child was used in propaganda videos, sometimes holding a gun. “He was a poster kid for the Al Qaeda…and for members of Al Qaeda, who were indoctrinated with these propaganda videos, he means a lot to them,” Soufan tells Williams.
The U.S. has named Hamza a “specially designated global terrorist” – the same classification his father once held. He even sounds like his father, says Soufan. “His recent message that came out, he delivered the speech as if it’s his father…using sentences, terminology that was used by Osama bin Laden.”
Hamza has recorded four audio messages in the last two years. Soufan believes Hamza can inspire and unite the jihadi movement. Says Soufan, “He’s basically saying, ‘American people, we’re coming, and you’re going to feel it. And we’re going to take revenge for what you did to my father…Iraq…Afghanistan….’ The whole thing was about vengeance.” Watch the clip.
Al Qaeda now has footholds in about a dozen countries and has grown since the Arab Spring revolts destabilized regimes and created power vacuums. In Syria alone, it’s estimated to have about 20,000 followers, many in control of towns and villages. Some groups are eschewing the name Al Qaeda to avoid attention from the West and gain local support, but they are Qaeda affiliates, says Soufan.
“Al Qaeda is stronger than ever. I don’t believe even bin Laden in his wildest dreams thought that he will have followers who command armies, troops, lands,” Soufan says.
ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? CURIOSITY ROVER EXPLORES WHETHER LIFE COULD HAVE BEGUN ON MARS, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Is Earth the only planet in our solar system that has life on it? Scientists can’t say for sure, but life could have flourished on Mars, based on data gleaned by the Mars rover Curiosity. Bill Whitaker reports on the sights and data beamed back more than 30 million miles from Mars by Curiosity, information that’s telling scientists a lot about the red planet and Earth. Whitaker’s report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, May 14 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Whitaker visits the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., to bring viewers on a trip to Mars. JPL’s monitors show incredible images from the planet’s surface, such as a sunset and Martian terrain. But information from Curiosity’s internal lab offers evidence of essential organic chemicals, leading JPL’s chief engineer, Rob Manning, to consider an even wilder trip. “Could have been that Mars was habitable before Earth was, and life got its foothold on Mars and took its journey to Earth, and we’re all Martians.”
Manning explains further. “When a meteor comes along and hits Mars, a rock from Mars can be lifted up, travel in circles around the sun until someday it will bump into Earth,” he tells Whitaker. “We’ve found Mars rock…we’ve found them all over the Earth.” Manning says Earth rocks have travelled to Mars in the same way and that life could have survived the journey.
Curiosity travelled to Mars four years ago and has been collecting information and beaming it back ever since. The device is controlled by technicians at JPL, who can instruct it to perform tasks each day, such as capturing images of the surface or drilling and analyzing Martian rock.
The device is a modern marvel that weighs a ton. One of the biggest challenges for scientists was executing a safe landing for the heavy machine, the main piece in a program that costs more than $2 billion. The solution involved a flying saucer, giant cables and retrorockets. There were skeptics. Watch the animation.
Says lead engineer Adam Steltzner, “The man in the street says, ‘That looks crazy.’ I could have told you it was crazy.”
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MAY 14
JAMES COMEY – In a 2014 interview after he became FBI director, James Comey spoke to Scott Pelley about his job and the political independence it required in order to uphold the rule of law effectively. That issue was front and center this week when he was abruptly fired by the president amid the FBI’s investigation of Russian ties to the Trump presidential campaign. Robert G. Anderson and Pat Milton are the producers.
THE BIN LADEN DOCUMENTS – Former FBI agent Ali Soufan, who was the bureau’s lead investigator into Al Qaeda after 9/11, tells Holly Williams about the treasure trove of documents seized in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Among the revelations: letters from an adoring son poised to take his father’s place. Michael Radutzky and Denise Schrier Cetta are the producers.
CURIOSITY ON MARS – Bill Whitaker reports on the Mars rover Curiosity, whose images and data are providing scientists a fascinating look at the red planet’s surface and new theories about life in the universe. Robert G. Anderson and Aaron Weisz are the producers.
YOU GOTTA HAVE CHARACTER! THAT’S THE SECRET SAUCE THAT WON CUBS FIRST WORLD SERIES IN 108 YEARS, SAYS CLUB PRESIDENT THEO EPSTEIN, ON “60 MINUTES”
Character is the difference maker. And once the Chicago Cubs put together a team with character and a good deal of talent, they won the World Series for the first time in 108 years. That’s the secret to the Cubs’ incredible championship, says the team’s president, Theo Epstein. Bill Whitaker speaks to Epstein, manager Joe Maddon and teammates Kyle Schwarber and Jason Heyward for the inside look at a sports story for the ages. Whitaker’s report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, May 7 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Epstein, who helped the Boston Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years, built the Cubs with young hitters who had character. “Players that tend to respond to adversity the right way and triumph in the end are players with strong character. If you have enough guys like that in the clubhouse, you have an edge on the other team,” he says. “I just saw over the years that the times that we did remarkable things, it was always because players didn’t want to let each other down. Players wanted to lift each other up,” Epstein tells Whitaker. How does he know they have it? “Find out how he treats people when no one’s looking. You go talk to their girlfriend…their ex-girlfriends. You go talk to their friends…their enemies,” says Epstein. Watch the excerpt.
Epstein brought Schwarber to the Cubs because he had character. “He would run through a wall in order to catch a ball. He would attack any obstacle that faced the team,” says Epstein. The slugger tore knee ligaments early in April last year and was supposed to be out for the season. He was determined to make it back sooner. To everyone’s surprise, his doctor cleared him to play just in time for the World Series. But it was risky. “He’s like, I’m not going to hold you back, but you could blow out a hamstring or an oblique by trying to do this,” Schwarber recalls. “And I was like, ‘That’s fine. I got the whole off-season to take care of it.’”
It came down to Schwarber, who hadn’t batted in six months, trying to get back his stroke and eye only a few days before the World Series – all while doctors limited him to 60 swings a day. He took his 60 swings, but also stood in front of pitching machine watching hundreds of pitches to retrain his eye. He batted .400 in the World Series and got the hit that set up a dramatic win in extra innings of the final game. But it took another act of character from another teammate to set him up.
Jason Heyward had a tough season, batting just .230. In Game 7, when the Cleveland Indians scored three times to tie the Cubs in the eighth inning, the team was down. Heyward called a meeting during a rain delay after the ninth inning, something the Cubs hadn’t needed all season. “I didn’t know what to say. I just told them that I loved them. I said, ‘We are the best team in the game….’” Heyward tells Whitaker. That’s when character kicked in, says Schwarber. “You could feel that energy in that room, it shifted from…being dead to we’re going to win this game.”
FAMILY AND NEIGHBORS LAMENT THE DEPORTATION OF A FATHER, FRIEND AND BUSINESS OWNER, ON “60 MINUTES” THIS SUNDAY
Roberto Beristain Came to the U.S. Illegally Nearly 20 Years Ago
The family and friends of a business owner who recently was deported to Mexico speak out against the new immigration policy that led to his arrest and the arrests of thousands of other illegal immigrants with no criminal records. Anderson Cooper talks to the Indiana residents, most of whom voted for President Donald Trump, whose new policy directly affected business owner Roberto Beristain, for a 60 MINUTES report Sunday, May 7 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Beristain had no criminal record and had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years. His wife and children are all U.S. citizens. He entered the U.S. illegally in 1998, but he’d been issued a temporary work permit, social security number and driver’s license during the Obama administration. Beristain was the longtime cook and new owner of “Eddie’s Steak Shed,” a restaurant in Granger, Ind., which employs up to 20 people.
“It just feels wrong,” says Kimberly Glowacki. She and other local residents who know Beristain spoke with Cooper.
“The community is better for having someone like him,” says Michelle Craig. “This is not the person he said he would deport,” she added, referring to President Trump, whom she says she voted for. Dave Keck echoed her feelings. “I voted for him because he said he was going to get rid of the bad hombres – Roberto is a good hombre,” he tells Cooper. Matt Leliaert says Beristain had the American Dream in his hands: “I mean, he showed up here with just the shirt on his back and he's a restaurant owner 20 years later…and he worked his butt off to get there.” Watch the excerpt.
During the Obama administration, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was told to focus on deporting illegal immigrants with convictions for felonies or serious misdemeanors. On his fifth day in office, President Trump signed a new executive order that still made deporting criminals a priority but also made it easier to deport people with no criminal records. ICE says the number of illegal immigrants with no criminal records who have been arrested has more than doubled since President Trump signed that order.
James Carafano, a policy expert at the Heritage Foundation and a member of the president’s transition team, says the new policy is designed to serve as a deterrent. “It's not that they're going out and they're looking for people who have done nothing. But that we have an obligation to enforce the law,” he says. “And if somebody comes across our path who's broken the law… There's a new sheriff in town. And the law's going to be enforced.”
In a statement, ICE told 60 MINUTES that Roberto Beristain had been deported because he had a “final order of removal” against him. During a trip to Niagara Falls 17 years ago, Beristain had taken a wrong turn, ended up at the Canadian Border and was detained for not having papers. When he failed to “voluntarily depart” the U.S. within 60 days after that incident, he automatically became the subject of that “final order of removal.” But three years ago, he obtained a temporary deferral of that order, and he had been checking in with the government once a year ever since.
Beristain’s wife, Helen, tells Cooper about her husband: “The only bad thing he's done is stayed in the United States because he loves this country. That's his only crime.”
BLANK FACES OF GUILTY NAZIS IN NUREMBERG STILL HAUNT THE LAST PROSECUTOR WHO BROUGHT THEM TO JUSTICE, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Ben Ferencz, at 97, Remembers the Trial like It Was Yesterday
It still appalls him after 70 years. Ben Ferencz says that the lack of remorse on the blank faces of the Nazis he prosecuted for killing more than a million innocent people is still revolting. The 97-year-old recalls the scene at Nuremberg in vivid detail to Lesley Stahl on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, May 7 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
“Defendants’ faces were blank all the time…absolutely blank…like…they’re waiting for a bus,” recalls Ferencz. Asked what was going on inside him, Ferencz replies, “I’m still churning,” as he tears up. “I’m still churning.” Watch an excerpt.
Ferencz was a 24-year-old Army private with a law degree from Harvard who had served in many of the major battles of World War II when he was transferred into a new Army unit charged with investigating war crimes. He entered several newly liberated concentration camps in search of evidence. After the war, as part of the Nuremberg prosecution team, he came upon a cache of secret Nazi reports documenting the systematic killing of more than a million people, victims who were massacred by SS troops not in concentration camps, but in the towns and cities where they lived.
“They were 3,000 SS officers trained for the purpose and directed to kill, without pity or remorse, every single Jewish man, woman and child they could lay their hands on,” he tells Stahl.
The Nuremberg trials were the first international war crimes tribunals and were already underway when Ferencz presented the newfound evidence to his superiors. They told him the trial schedule was already set, and there wasn’t enough staff to prosecute another trial. Ferencz persisted; he had the reports outlining in detail the murders he wanted the world to know about. He was told that if he could handle the case in addition to his other work, he himself could do it. He was 27 years old.
Ferencz’s trial, of 22 commanders of the SS units called Einsatzgruppen, was trial number nine at Nuremberg. All 22 pled not guilty. “‘Nicht Schuldig’…Same thing, not guilty,” says Ferencz. But he had their own written reports of the murders they and their men had committed. He didn’t even have to call any witnesses. Still, the defendants denied their guilt.
One in particular did so in such a flagrant way, Ferencz says, that Ferencz almost lost his composure in the courtroom. “He gets up and he says,” then uttering the words in German before translating, “‘What? The Jews were shot? I hear it here for the first time.’ Boy, I felt, if I’d had a bayonet, I would have jumped over the thing and put a bayonet right through one ear and let it come out the other.”
Ferencz went on to become a legend in international law circles and was a passionate advocate for creating the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where war crimes are prosecuted. He still speaks out against war and crimes against humanity. As he tells Stahl, “Now I will tell you something very profound, which I have learned after many years. War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people.”
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MAY 7
DEPORTED – Family and neighbors lament the recent deportation of a father, friend and business owner who had no criminal record and had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years. His wife and children were all U.S. citizens. Anderson Cooper reports. Andy Court and Sarah Fitzpatrick are the producers.
THE NUREMBERG PROSECUTOR – Ben Ferencz is the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials after World War II. At 97, he recalls to Lesley Stahl in vivid detail prosecuting Nazi commanders for the murders of more than a million people, the largest killings outside the concentration camps. Shari Finkelstein and Nieves Zuberbuhler are the producers.
THEO AND JOE – Bill Whitaker gets the inside story from the Cub’s management and players on how they brought the World Series trophy to Chicago for the first time in 108 years. Robert Anderson and Aaron Weisz are the producers.
NO WAIT AT HEAVEN’S GATE, QUIPS MIKE BLOOMBERG: FOR PHILANTHROPY AND HEALTH INITIATIVES “I’M GOING RIGHT IN” EX-NYC MAYOR TELLS “60 MINUTES”
Presidential Exploratory Included Picking Adm. Mike Mullen as his Running Mate
Billionaire media mogul and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg is so confident he’s lived a good life, he jokes to Steve Kroft, that he can skip the interview with St. Peter at the Golden Gate. The Bloomberg L.P. founder and former three-term mayor of New York also talks about his past designs on the presidency in a wide-ranging interview, to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 23 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
“I like what I see when I look in the mirror….We’ve probably saved millions of lives, and certainly we’ll save tens of millions of lives going forward,” he says referring to the causes he has supported and funded for the future. “There aren’t many people that have done that. So, you know, when I get to Heaven, I’m not sure I’m going to stand for an interview. I’m going right in,” Bloomberg says with a laugh. Watch the excerpt.
During his years in office, Bloomberg went on a health kick, waging war on soft drinks, smoking and trans fats in food – angering some New Yorkers but saving the lives of others, he says. He is the eighth richest man in the world according to Forbes and has already given away $5 billion. Most of his estimated fortune of $47 billion is earmarked for his charitable foundation, says Bloomberg. “Oh, it’s more money than anybody could possibly spend on themselves. The issue is what can you do with it?”
So far, Bloomberg has spent huge sums on gun control, anti-smoking activities and environmental concerns, including $100 million for the Sierra Club’s battle against the coal industry. He points out that the life expectancy of New Yorkers went up three years while he was mayor. It was a job he liked. “Loved every minute of it. It’s a wonderful job. The challenges are enormous, but you have a great opportunity to make a difference,” he tells Kroft.
He was respected and effective enough as mayor to consider running for the presidency twice, even picking a running mate in retired Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, according to aides. But he never could build a constituency among either Democrats or Republicans and he concluded he could never be elected as an independent. Would he consider a run in the future?
“Well, I’m 75 years old. It’d be an age issue, I suppose. I’ve got plenty of things to do. And maybe I'll run for president of my block association, but not much more than that.”
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 2017
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG – Steve Kroft profiles the billionaire media mogul who was a three-term mayor of New York and was considered presidential timber. Maria Gavrilovic is the producer.
THE JUDGE – Controversial and provocative Federal Judge Alex Kozinski responds to President Trump’s attack on his court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and expresses some shocking views on the death penalty. Lesley Stahl reports. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.
THE AMERICAN STEEPLECHASE – Charlie Rose goes to horse country to report on the century-old horse racing tradition of “timber racing,” an exhilarating and dangerous sport characterized by steep jumps the horses and riders must navigate. David Browning and Michelle St. John are the producers.
FEDERAL JUDGE SUGGESTS GUILLOTINE OR FIRING SQUAD FOR DEATH PENALTY, SAYS LETHAL INJECTION IS JUST A LIE TO HIDE THE BRUTALITY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT – “60 MINUTES”
Provocative Judge Alex Kozinski also Discusses President Trump’s Travel Ban
As Arkansas fights in court to execute several inmates before a key drug in its lethal injection protocol expires, a prominent federal judge says that the use of such drugs in capital punishment is just a lie that masks a brutal practice. Ninth Circuit Appeals Court Judge Alex Kozinski tells Lesley Stahl that the guillotine or firing squad may be more appropriate, so citizens aren’t lulled into seeing the death penalty as a humane and peaceful practice. Stahl profiles the conservative and controversial judge on the next edition of 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 23 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Judge Kozinski, whose court is not involved in the Arkansas matter and was not commenting on the specific case, says lethal injections sugarcoat the truth. “The use of lethal injection is the way of lying to ourselves, to make it look like executions are peaceful, benign…like going to sleep,” he says. “And they’re not. They’re brutal things.” He proposes firing squads. “Never fails,” he tells Stahl. And the guillotine? “Well, you know, its 100 percent effective and it leaves no doubt that what we are doing is a violent thing. If we as a society are willing to take away human life, we should be willing to watch it.” Watch the excerpt.
Judge Kozinski has spent over three decades ruling on appeals cases from the bench of the Ninth Circuit. In February, the court famously upheld a lower court’s blocking of President Trump’s controversial travel ban. The court is scheduled to take up the matter of the revised ban next month. In their discussion, one of the issues the judges raised was the fact Mr. Trump had made numerous statements while campaigning advocating a “Muslim ban.” This would be unconstitutional. But in a dissenting opinion, Judge Kozinski wrote that reading too much motive into candidates’ every statement would “chill campaign speech.” He tells Stahl campaign speech is at the core of the First Amendment. “We want to be sure that candidates for office are free to express their views…we don’t want them holding back… concealing their views and then disclosing them afterward,” he says.
But he does have a word of advice for the president, who’s gone after judges in the past, when he’s disagreed with them. “I think that litigants before the court should be very careful about insulting the people who make the decisions,” Kozinski advises. “It’s not going to help anything. All it’s going to do is emphasize the weakness of your position.”
THEY’RE OFF! “60 MINUTES” GOES TO THE RACES WHEN CHARLIE ROSE REPORTS ON THE CENTURY-OLD TRADITION OF TIMBER RACING, AN AMERICAN STEEPLECHASE – SUNDAY, APRIL 23
Cameras on Horses and Jumps Bring Viewers into the Action
Strategically placed cameras capture the exhilarating action while Charlie Rose provides the wit and reportage, when 60 MINUTES goes to the Timber Races, the American version of the Steeplechase. Rose’s story will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 23 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Watch an excerpt.
America’s Timber Races, so named for the wooden fences horses and riders must jump, are up to four miles long and contain as many as 22 jumps. The sport originated in Ireland 250 years ago when horses were raced across the countryside jumping hedge rows. Today, a series of run-up races in the Mid-Atlantic States culminates in the Maryland Hunt Cup event that will be held Saturday, April 29.
Paddy Neilson has won the prestigious race three times; he comes from a family that’s been riding and racing since 1875. At 75 he’s considered the dean of Timber Racing, still riding for pleasure and wearing the scars of old injuries that any timber jockey will tell you come with the turf. Some of the injuries are serious, but it’s all worth it, says Neilson.
“There’s just some magic about the power of that animal underneath of you,” he tells Rose. “And then when you ask him for everything he’s got in the last quarter of a mile…and there it is, it is a marvelous feeling that only comes from doing it, really. It is great.”
FAMILIES OF NEWTOWN VICTIMS CREATE LEGACY FOUNDATIONS TO HONOR THEIR MURDERED LOVED ONES, ON “60 MINUTES,” THIS SUNDAY
Families of the victims massacred by a madman more than four years ago in a Connecticut grammar school still mourn the loss of their loved ones, but some are finding ways to keep their memories alive in legacy foundations they’ve created in their names. Scott Pelley returns to Newtown to report on the human impact of the school shooting that took the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators and shocked the nation in December 2012. Pelley’s report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 16 (7:00-8:00PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
An excerpt from the story will appear tonight on the CBS EVENING NEWS. Text of that excerpt and a link to its video are below. Please credit 60 MINUTES.
A PARENT WHO HAS LOST A CHILD HAS ONE FEAR LEFT—THE END OF REMEMBERING. AND SO MANY OF THE FAMILIES HAVE CREATED PROJECTS THAT INTRODUCE THEIR CHILD TO NEW PEOPLE. BEN WHEELER NOW LIVES IN THE WORK OF BEN’S LIGHTHOUSE, HIS MOTHER, FRANCINE, CREATES SERVICE PROJECTS FOR NEWTOWN KIDS.
WHEELER: What a wonderful way to honor him and continue to be his parents.
PELLEY: Continue to be his parents?
WHEELER: Yeah. I can't live the rest of my life not talking about him. I mean, imagine you having a 6-year-old, and then you don't anymore. Are you going to stop talking about them? The worst thing you can do to a grieving parent is not to mention the child. Then you're not acknowledging his existence. And so when people do acknowledge it, I'm so appreciative. I say, “Oh, thank you for–” and even if I'm crying, they're like, “I'm sorry I made you cry.” I'm like, “No, you didn't make me cry. You brought him back.”
DAVID WHEELER: It's like having him back for a minute.
FRANCINE WHEELER: Yeah…
THE WHEELERS WANTED ANOTHER CHILD, A SIBLING FOR THEIR OLDEST. AND ALMOST TWO YEARS AFTER BEN WAS KILLED, MATTHEW BENNETT WHEELER WAS BORN.
WHEELER: You try to make the world into the place you want it to be and many times the only area you have any control over is the square footage of your own house. And so you do what you can.
OVERBURDENED NOLA PUBLIC DEFENDERS SAY INNOCENTS WENT TO PRISON BECAUSE THEY LACKED RESOURCES AND TIME TO DEFEND THEM PROPERLY, THIS SUNDAY, ON “60 MINUTES”
NOLA’s Public Defenders Office Refuses or Waitlists Cases where Defendants Face
Life in Prison
Past and current attorneys of the New Orleans Public Defenders Office tell Anderson Cooper that they believe innocent clients have gone to prison because they lacked the time and resources to defend them properly. The system is so overburdened that in 2016 New Orleans Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton began ordering his staff to refuse to take on clients facing the most serious felonies. Cooper’s report on the New Orleans justice system will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, April 16 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
All nine of the attorneys agreed when asked by Cooper if they believed an innocent client went to prison because they didn’t have enough time to spend on their case. Watch the excerpt.
When 52 attorneys are responsible for 20,000 criminal cases a year, as in New Orleans, they do their best, says Bunton. But often, indigent defendants will not get the quality defense they are entitled to. “You can’t provide the kind of representation that the Constitution, our code of ethics and professional standards would have you provide,” says Bunton. Asked if it’s better to have a busy lawyer than no lawyer, Bunton does not hesitate. “No. A lawyer poorly resourced can cause irreparable harm to a client.”
Cooper follows one case of a man arrested in New Orleans who sat in jail for more than a year before an attorney presented evidence to the court showing he did not even match the suspect’s description. He also speaks to the man’s original public defender, who got so fed up with not having time to provide quality defense that she quit.
At the time, Lindsay Samuel represented nearly a hundred clients facing a life in prison. She felt she was “always coming up short. The first thousand clients you feel terrible. The second thousand clients, you feel awful,” she recalls. “Every day, my clients are going away for a decade, and I just move along to the next client,” says Samuel.
Bunton shows Cooper a warehouse full of the nearly half million cases handled by his office in the past decade. He says 90 to 95 percent of the defendants in those cases pled guilty, many because they lacked confidence in an overburdened public defender being able to provide them with an adequate defense. The justice system in New Orleans has become a criminal processing system, says Bunton, “A conveyor belt that starts when you are arrested, and then there’s hands that touch you on your way to prison,” he tells Cooper. “It’s not about figuring out…your innocence…and that’s what we are fighting to change,” says Bunton.
TO THE BURMESE BLINDED BY CATARACTS, THESE DOCTORS ARE “GODS” OF SIGHT, THIS SUNDAY, ON “60 MINUTES”
Eye Surgeons and Those They Have Trained Have Restored Sight in Over 4 Million People
The doctors were “gods” to an old, blind Burmese woman whose sight was restored by a quick operation. Cataracts had stolen her sight for years, while others had been blind for decades, before the simple operation allowed them to see again. Bill Whitaker reports from Burma, also known as Myanmar, where two eye surgeons are bringing their program that has already reversed blindness in over 4 million people and could help to eliminate cataracts and other reversible blindness in the developing world. “Out of Darkness” will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, April 16 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
“Hallelujah!” shouts the old woman as the bandages are removed. Her surgeons, Drs. Sanduk Ruit and Geoff Tabin, look on and assure her they are not gods. But they are miracle workers to the sightless in Burma, and their plan has already changed the lives of millions more blind people throughout the world.
Dr. Ruit, a Nepalese eye surgeon, had been restoring the sight of cataract suffers using a technique that requires no stitches. He met Dr. Tabin, an American eye surgeon and world-renowned mountain climber, and they created the Himalayan Cataract Project. Watch an excerpt. Their revolutionary system goes beyond the surgery. They started a lens factory that produces implants for a fraction of the cost in the U.S., and they have a hospital in Nepal that has trained hundreds of doctors and nurses in their technique. During their visit to Burma, they were able to perform more surgeries in three days than are usually done in a year. They left behind a Burmese team trained in their techniques to carry on the work.
Their focus was originally in the Himalayas, but they have been so successful they renamed their group CureBlindness.org. They’ve operated in two dozen countries, including North Korea and Ethiopia, restoring sight to 150,000 people. The doctors they’ve trained have given vision to 4 million others, and their surgical outcomes have been peer-reviewed by the leading American journal for eye doctors. It’s the developing world, but people are getting first-rate treatment, says Dr. Tabin. “For these advanced cataracts, I'm performing the same quality of surgery that I would be doing in America.” Tabin is currently a professor at the University of Utah Medical School in Salt Lake City.
As Dr. Tabin points out, they are doing more than restoring sight. “You know, once someone goes blind in a developing world, their life expectancy is about one-third that of age- and health-matched peers,” he says. “And also in the developing world, it takes, often, a person out of the work force, or a child out of school, to care for the blind person. So when we restore sight to a blind person, we're freeing up their family and restoring their life,” Tabin tells Whitaker.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 16
RETURN TO NEWTOWN – Parents of school children massacred by a madman more than four years ago in Connecticut still mourn the tragedy; some are finding ways to help prevent another. Scott Pelley reports. Henry Schuster is the producer.
DEFENSELESS – Past and current attorneys of the New Orleans Public Defenders Office tell Anderson Cooper they believe innocent clients have gone to jail because they lacked the time and resources to defend them properly. Denise Schrier Cetta is the producer.
OUT OF DARKNESS – Bill Whitaker reports from Burma, also known as Myanmar, where two eye surgeons are employing their program that has already reversed blindness in over 4 million people and could help to eliminate cataract and other reversible blindness in the developing world. Rachael Morehouse and Henry Schuster are the producers.
JAPAN’S HOMER-HITTING, 100-MPH-PITCHING PHENOMENON SHOHEI OHTANI COMPARES HIS SKILLS TO BRYCE HARPER’S AND CLAYTON KERSHAW’S – SEE HIM ON “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY
Just Don’t Compare Him to Babe Ruth, He Says in His First Network Television Interview
Shohei Ohtani, the best player in Japan, sees himself in some of the best players in Major League Baseball: Bryce Harper, the slugger, and Clayton Kershaw, the superstar left-handed pitcher. If Ohtani comes to Major League Baseball, he will be something Americans haven’t seen for almost a hundred years: an all-star quality pitcher and hitter in the same player – just like Babe Ruth was. Just don’t compare Ohtani to the Babe; the 22-year-old says that’s a stretch, even for someone who can throw 100 miles per hour and hit huge homers. Ohtani appears in his first network television interview when he is profiled by Jon Wertheim on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, April 9 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
“I actually do see myself [in Harper and Kershaw],” says the right-handed pitching Ohtani. “And I actually try throwing lefty sometimes…Just thinking about facing him makes me really happy and excited. I could tell he’s such a great pitcher through the TV screen,” he says of the three-time Cy Young winning Kershaw. Asked how he would pitch to Harper, the National League’s most valuable player in 2015, he says, “I would have to go with my best pitch, which is the fastball. I want to see how my best pitch fares against one of the best hitters,” he tells Wertheim. Watch the excerpt.
The 6’4” Ohtani has thrown a pitch 102.5 miles per hour, the fastest ever in professional Japanese baseball; pitched a sub 2.00 ERA season; hits for average; and in an exhibition game, blasted a ball into the Tokyo Dome roof that probably would have gone out of an open top stadium. In high school he was already throwing the ball faster than most MLB pitchers, recording one pitch at 99 miles per hour.
Despite all this, the young, cool Japanese all-star waves off comparisons to America’s biggest baseball legend. “[Babe Ruth] is like a mythical character to me. Because it’s such a long time ago, and he was God to baseball. I shouldn’t be compared to him.”
Ohtani has always had his eye on MLB. In fact, when he was eligible to play in the pros at age 18, he went so far as to tell Japanese teams not to draft him, but the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Sapporo did so anyway. They lured him with the prospect of allowing him to hit and pitch. He signed with them, and the team won the championship; Ohtani was the league’s MVP.
The Fighters have said they’ll permit Ohtani to negotiate with Major League teams after this season, but a salary cap for foreign players under the age of 25 would set the maximum he could be paid by any MLB team at $6 million. Coming to the MLB before he turns 25 will mean making many millions of dollars less than he’s worth in America’s big leagues. Not a factor, says Ohtani. “Personally, I don’t care how much I get paid or how much less I get paid because of this,” he says.
WHY CAN’T WE PUT DOWN OUR PHONES? BECAUSE THEIR APPS AND CONTENT ARE DESIGNED TO KEEP US ON THEM, SAYS FORMER GOOGLE MANAGER TRISTAN HARRIS, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Smartphones are becoming a habit with many people, and it’s all by design, says a former Google product manager, Tristan Harris. He tells Anderson Cooper that the apps and content – especially social media – carried on phones are purposely designed to be habit-forming. Cooper’s story also explores the brain science that explains how people are so susceptible to what some programmers call “brain hacking.” It will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 9 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Harris compares smartphones to “slot machines” because, he says, “Every time I check my phone, I'm playing the slot machine to see, ‘What did I get?’” He is referring to “likes” on Facebook and Instagram, cute emoji in text messages and more followers on Twitter – powerful reinforcement for staying on your phone. It’s a flood of gratifying information that keeps coming via the so-easy-to-use scrolling method on digital devices – another way to keep us engaged.
“There's a whole playbook of techniques that get used to get you using the product for as long as possible,” Harris tells Cooper. Kids are often the biggest users. Watch the excerpt.
In one example, Harris says that Snapchat, the messaging service popular with teens, has a streak feature that lets users know how many days in a row they have swapped messages with a friend. “Well, now I don't want to lose my streak,” Harris says the kids often think. “But it turns out that kids actually, when they go on vacation, are so stressed about their streak that they actually give their password to, like, five other kids to keep their streaks going on their behalf.”
Harris says this is an example of the smartphone and its content designers programming people. “Inadvertently, whether they want to or not, they are shaping the thoughts and feelings and actions of people…There's always this narrative that technology's neutral. And it's up to us to choose how we use it. This is just not true,” says Harris.
The strategy of engaging the user for as long a period of time as possible is just good business, even if it can have a bad effect on people. “They want you to use it in particular ways and for long periods of time. Because that's how they make their money,” Harris tells Cooper.
“THE MINUTE THEY GET A JOB…THEY STOP BEING A REFUGEE” SAYS CHOBANI YOGURT BILLIONAIRE WHO HAS BEEN CRITICIZED FOR HIRING REFUGEES, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Hamdi Ulukaya emigrated from Turkey to the U.S. in 1994. Now he is the billionaire behind America’s bestselling Greek yogurt, Chobani. But the immigrant living the American dream has been harshly criticized for sharing a little of that dream with refugees by hiring them to work in his yogurt plants. It’s one part of his remarkable story, which he tells to Steve Kroft for a 60 MINUTES profile, Sunday, April 9 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT).
Ulukaya’s 5-year-old plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, is partly staffed by refugees, some from Muslim countries that were resettled by the U.S. Government. It became a flash point for the right during the past election when it was claimed he brought refugees, crime and tuberculosis to the town. One headline read: “American yogurt tycoon vows to choke U.S. with Muslims.” “It was an emotional time…people…hate you for doing something right,” says Ulukaya. “There’s not much you can do.” Watch the excerpt.
Refugees helped Ulukaya build his business at a smaller plant in upstate New York. As demand grew for his product, he needed more workers and turned to refugees the government had resettled in Utica, N.Y. He provided transportation to the plant in New Berlin and translators on the floor. “The minute they get a job, that’s the minute they stop being a refugee … They are the most loyal, hard-working people right now in our plant here. We have 19 different nationalities, 16 different translators,” he tells Kroft.
It was natural for Ulukaya to turn to refugees once again to help staff his much larger operation in Twin Falls. Idaho Governor Butch Otter defends Ulukaya, whose plant has created over 1,000 jobs and helped to make Twin Falls a thriving town. “I think his care about his employees, whether they are refugees or they are folks that were born 10 miles from where they’re working – I believe his advocacy for that person is no different,” says Otter. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Ulukaya learned to make yogurt from the milk of his family’s goats and sheep. He came to the U.S. as a student with hardly any money and built a huge, profitable business that led to his philanthropic efforts aimed at helping refugees. He has donated millions to the care of refugees in Europe and the Middle East, in addition to helping them thrive in America by hiring them in his plants.
He chose the name “Chobani” because his product speaks to his life in shepherding. He tells Kroft, “[It means] shepherd. It’s a very beautiful word. It represents peace…giving…kindness, and it meant a lot to me…I come from a life with shepherds and mountains and all that stuff.”
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 9
BRAIN HACKING – Why can't we stop looking at our smartphones? And are the designers of the apps and content on them using neuroscience to keep us hooked? Anderson Cooper reports from California and meets tech insiders, including software programmer Tristan Harris, who says phones are habit-forming in the same way as slot machines. Guy Campanile is the producer.
CHIEF OF CHOBANI – Steve Kroft profiles Chobani yogurt billionaire Hamdi Ulukaya, whose hiring of refugees has not only helped them, but helped grow the biggest brand of Greek yogurt in the U.S. Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados are the producers.
JAPAN’S BABE RUTH – The best pitcher in Japanese professional baseball is also one of its best hitters. Shohei Ohtani is a 22-year-old phenomenon who throws fireballs and hits humongous homeruns – and he may be coming to America’s Major League as early as next season. Jon Wertheim reports. Nathalie Sommer is the producer.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 2
SHOTS FIRED – A Tulsa police officer who killed an unarmed black man tells Bill Whitaker that race had nothing to do with her decision to pull the trigger. In her first interview, Officer Betty Shelby says Terence Crutcher caused his own death through his actions and his failure to heed commands. Many, including the Tulsa prosecutor who has charged her with manslaughter, believe a video of the incident shows a wrongful death. Marc Lieberman and Michael Kaplan are the producers. THIS IS A DOUBLE LENGTH SEGMENT
PETER MARINO – Peter Marino is a serious player in the worlds of art, architecture and fashion. He is a tastemaker for the rich and famous who think his custom black leather biker gear is the least interesting thing about him. Steve Kroft reports. Michael Karzis is the producer.
IN HER FIRST INTERVIEW, TULSA POLICE OFFICER CHARGED FOR KILLING AN UNARMED BLACK MAN SAYS RACE WAS NOT A FACTOR AND HIS OWN ACTIONS CAUSED HIS DEATH – “60 MINUTES”
Officer Betty Shelby Says the Incident Caught on Video So Worried Authorities
That They Charged Her Quickly with Manslaughter to Prevent Possible Civil Unrest
The Tulsa police officer charged with manslaughter for killing an unarmed black man tells Bill Whitaker that race had nothing to do with her decision to pull the trigger. Officer Betty Shelby says Terence Crutcher caused his own death through his actions and his failure to heed her commands. Crutcher’s twin sister says video of the incident proves her brother was wrongfully killed. Shelby, who is expected to be criminally tried in May, speaks in her first interview about the incident on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, April 2 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
The police dash-cam and helicopter videotapes show Crutcher walking back to his vehicle while, Shelby says, she was ordering him to stop. She says she suspected he was intoxicated because of his “zombie-like” demeanor. An autopsy found the drug PCP in his system. A vial of the drug was found in the door pocket of his car. The video shows Crutcher had his hands up for much of the encounter, but Shelby fired at him, she says, when he reached into his car. “What I based everything on was his actions, his behaviors. Race had nothing to do with my decision making,” she says.
“I'm feeling that his intent is to do me harm, and I keep thinking, ‘Don't do this. Please don't do this. Don't make this happen,’” says Shelby. Shelby tells Whitaker that Crutcher kept reaching into his pocket suggesting to her, based on her experience, that he had a gun. When he got to the car window, Shelby remembers the moment he reached in. “And it's fast. Just that would tell any officer that that man's going for a weapon…I say with a louder, more intense voice, ‘Stop. Stop! Stop!’ And he didn't. And that's when I took aim.” Watch the excerpt.
Six days after the shooting and before the police investigation was concluded, the Tulsa district attorney charged Shelby with manslaughter, alleging she overreacted. Asked if she thought the authorities had charged her quickly to prevent civil unrest, Shelby replies, “I believe that's what they thought.” After her name was made public, she says she began to receive death threats.
Tiffany Crutcher is Terence Crutcher’s twin sister. “Of course, she's saying everything that she's supposed to say to defend herself. What we saw on that video is what my dad always taught my brothers, taught us to do if we were pulled over by a police officer,” says Crutcher. “Put your hands in the air, and put your hands on the car. And my brother did what my father taught us.
“We need our men and women in blue. But at the end of the day, they're not warriors. They're supposed to be our guardians,” Crutcher tells Whitaker.
“60 MINUTES” INVESTIGATION INTO FIRST HOMEGROWN ISIS ATTACK SHOWS HOW HARD IT IS TO STOP SUCH ATTACKS EVEN WHEN A TERRORIST IS IDENTIFIED – SUNDAY ON CBS
One of the two homegrown terrorists who attacked a Texas event in 2015 was known to the FBI. In fact, he had been arrested and convicted for lying to the Bureau. Elton Simpson received probation for his sentence and went on to die with his fellow jihadist, Nadir Soofi, as they attempted to kill scores of Americans at a contest to draw the prophet Muhammad in Garland, a city near Dallas. Anderson Cooper reports on the incident, the first on American soil to be claimed by ISIS, on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, March 26 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Cooper’s report comes in the same week that a London terror attack at the hands of a radicalized jihadist born in Britain was also claimed as the work of ISIS.
The FBI follows numerous leads and suspected terrorists and has thwarted a number of domestic attacks. But their jobs got even harder when ISIS’ militant propaganda began to spread as it fought and terrorized to create a caliphate in Iraq. Their victories and territorial gains in Iraq inspired Soofi and Simpson and many other jihadists says a former government terror tracker who has trained FBI agents to track. Seamus Hughes has also studied the communications of Soofi and Simpson.
“This idea of a so-called caliphate was a driver for Simpson and Soofi. They had finally realized what they had talked about for years,” says Hughes, now deputy director of the George Washington University Center on Extremism. “It touched a nerve with a lot of folks in the jihadi-sphere. Especially in the summer of 2015, you saw a lot of these FBI guys, everything was blinking red. You had a number of different plots happening. And the FBI was kind of trying their best to catch up,” he tells Cooper. Watch the excerpt.
Asked by Cooper whether messages from ISIS had pushed Simpson into the attack, Hughes replies, “I think the [ISIS] folks whispering in his ear was a big part of it.”
When Soofi and Simpson, armed with multiple guns and wearing bullet-proof vests, came to a security checkpoint at the event, they fired dozens of shots at a security guard and a police officer. The officer shot both of them, inflicting grave wounds. Cooper spoke with the security guard, Bruce Joiner. “How he avoided hitting me, I don't know. Once [Officer Greg Stevens] saw them and saw the guns, he was all about takin' out the threat.”
Unknown at the time was that an undercover FBI agent was in a car directly behind the attackers, according to court documents. The FBI refuses to comment on the presence of their agent, but told 60 MINUTES, “There was no advance knowledge of a plot to attack the cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas.”
THE GAME OF CHESS TAKES ROOT IN RURAL MISSISSIPPI, GROWING STUDENTS’ HORIZONS AND CHANGING A WHOLE COMMUNITY, ON “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY
Braden Ferrell of the Franklin Chess Team
In rural Franklin County, Miss., just seven of the 93 high school graduates last year went on to a four-year college. But that number may rise dramatically over the next few years, thanks to a chess program that has broadened the outlooks of hundreds of school children, while lifting the hopes of their parents and community. Sharyn Alfonsi reports from Franklin County, Miss, on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, March 26 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
In only a year and a half, the chess program started in Franklin County by Dr. Jeff Bulington has turned out a state champion chess team. It was a seminal moment when Franklin County dominated the state championships. “That was very sobering for them to suddenly realize, ‘Wow, we are good.’” says Mitch Hamm, a team member’s parent. “The realization of their own potential was a beautiful moment.”
Some of the Franklin County grade schoolers out-played high schoolers in that statewide victory. They also overcame a stereotype. “People said country kids couldn’t learn chess,” says one of the players, Parker Wilkinson.
Even some locals were skeptical. They weren’t sure their kids were natural chess players. Says Bulington, “I was asked, ‘Do you think…these kids have it? Could you have a chess program here?’ And I was, ‘Yeah, of course. They’re as smart as any other kids I’ve ever met.’” Bulington came from Memphis, Tenn., where he had built a chess program for city kids. He was recruited by a benefactor who is paying his salary. The benefactor wishes to remain anonymous.
Just 7,000 reside in Franklin County in Mississippi’s southwest region. In a rural, poor county with two stoplights, some can’t see far beyond the county line. Chess is changing that, says Hamm. “You always want to see your kids go further,” he tells Alfonsi. He sees the game, the competition, as a vehicle. “This gives them a window at a young age, that [says] ‘Hey, there’s a whole world out there. I don’t need to set my goals at making $8 an hour,’” says Hamm. “‘I need to set my goals at whatever I want them to be.’”
Many of the students playing chess have gained a new confidence and seen a rise in their grades. Rebekah Griffin was in the fifth grade last year when she played in the state championships. “I didn’t really think about it until somebody told me, ‘You played a guy with a beard!’” Griffin is excited about her future. “I feel like chess could take us anywhere. But it’s not about where it takes us, it’s about how far it takes us.” Watch an excerpt.
Every chess player who spoke to 60 MINUTES plans to attend college.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 26
TEXAS – Two homegrown jihadists’ attack on a Texas Muhammad cartoon contest demonstrates how hard it is to prevent a terrorist attack even when one of the terrorists has been identified. Anderson Cooper reports. Graham Messick and Steve McCarthy are the producers.
FAKE NEWS – “Fake news” is rampant on social media. Scott Pelley investigates its creation and dissemination. Michael Radutzky is the producer.
CHESS COUNTRY – In rural Franklin County, Miss., a chess program has not only created a state championship team, but broadened the outlooks of hundreds of school children, while lifting the hopes of their parents and community. Sharyn Alfonsi reports. Draggan Mihailovich and Laura Dodd are the producers.
A HUMANITARIAN CAMPAIGN AGAINST FAMINE IS BEING WAGED IN SOUTH SUDAN – “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY
An Estimated 100,000 People Are Facing Starvation and Millions More Are at Risk
In a war-torn world where death often comes from the skies, life too can drop from above. Victims of the civil war in South Sudan are staying alive with precious food dropped from airplanes thanks to the UN’s World Food Programme. Scott Pelley reports on the famine in the world’s newest country and the humanitarian community fighting it on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, March 19 (7:30-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Bags of food weighing 110 pounds plummet from 700 feet out of cargo planes flying over areas where the hungry gather. The food is bagged carefully so it does not burst when it hits the ground. Cans of cooking oil are more fragile and require parachutes and special containers to land intact. 60 MINUTES cameras capture the airdrops and also go along for the descent in one case, with a small camera attached to a cooking oil package as it floats down on its mission.
On the ground, the WFP is already there to assure the starving are fed. WFP takes precautions in the landing zones by providing “rapid response teams,” which organize the distribution by registering families before the food touches down.
“We have to have everybody show up so we know that the food isn't being misdirected or misused,” says Brian Langdon. He leads a WFP team that hands out ration cards to the people who need the food the most. Langdon’s colleague, Owen Davies, tells Pelley, “It might be distributed to their friends…diverted to another community entirely. They might start charging for it. The goal is to reduce that by putting it in the hands of every individual household.”
Much of the food distributed in their airdrops comes from WFP’s warehouses in South Sudan’s capital city. Last July, it was raided by militia in an outbreak of violence.
WFP’s work is aided by the International Medical Corps which deploys doctors all over the country to bring the sick and malnourished back from the brink of death. In a displacement camp, Pelley meets Dr. Meroni Abraham and the children whose lives he’s trying to save. Meroni told 60 MINUTES, “Unless we intervene on time, which we are doing right now, the child can be short, stunted, and they may not be able to perform in their daily life.”
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2017
YOU’RE FIRED – The H-1B visa program was supposed to give American companies access to the best tech talent in the world, but loopholes in it allow firms to outsource American jobs and displace American workers. Bill Whitaker reports. Ira Rosen and Sam Hornblower are the producers.
FIGHTING FAMINE – A civil war has created a refugee crisis, compounded by a famine, in the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan. An estimated 100,000 people are facing starvation and millions more are at risk. If not for the efforts of the UN’s World Food Programme, millions could die. Scott Pelley reports. Nicole Young is the producer.
NEW KID ON THE STREET – Lesley Stahl visits the set of the pioneering children’s television program, Sesame Street and interacts with its iconic Muppets. Shari Finkelstein is the producer.
KREMLIN CRITIC WHO NEARLY DIED TWICE FROM MYSTERIOUS TOXIN, VOWS TO RETURN TO RUSSIA TO CONTINUE HIS OPPOSITION TO PUTIN POLICIES, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Vladimir Kara-Murza says he was poisoned twice for speaking out against the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite being at death’s door in both incidents, the political activist tells Lesley Stahl he will return to Russia to continue his protests. Kara-Murza appears on the next edition of 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 12 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
“Of course, I will absolutely go back to Russia,” he says in the interview conducted in a suburb of Washington, D.C. where his family lives. “I am Russian, this is my country, and I believe in what I do, in what my colleagues do. There are many of us.”
Kara-Murza is just one of several Kremlin critics who have been the victims of unsolved shootings, questionable suicides and poisonings. “Many, unfortunately, have died. I'm the fortunate one. I'm still here, I'm still talking to you. Many of my colleagues cannot do that,” he tells Stahl.
In the first incident in May 2015, he says his doctors told his wife he had only a 5 percent chance of living. It took him almost a year to recover. In the second illness, he says he was luckier because the doctors had seen his symptoms before and immediately knew how to treat him. Last month, he was flown back to the U.S. He’s recovering faster but still retains a slight limp.
Sources in line with the Kremlin have told 60 MINUTES that Kara-Murza’s story may be concocted by the opposition to tarnish Putin and his administration.
Kara-Murza, who spent a month in the Russian hospital last time and over two weeks this time is being monitored by doctors since his arrival to the U.S. He tells Stahl, “To those who say that this is a plot, I honestly, and I mean this sincerely, I wish they never have to experience what I've experienced twice in the last two years, when you're trying to breathe and you cannot. When you feel your organs shutting down, giving up on you one after another. And when you feel the life coming out of your body in the next few hours, and you don't remember anything for the next month. And then for the next year you're trying to relearn how to walk, how to use cutlery, you know, how to talk to your kids again. I wish these people who tell you these things never have to experience this. I honestly, sincerely do.”
AFTER TORTURE AND NEARLY 14 YEARS IN GUANTANAMO BAY, RECENTLY RELEASED DETAINEE SPEAKS OF THE “GREATNESS OF AMERICAN PEOPLE” FOR ALLOWING HIM TO WRITE AND PUBLISH A MEMOIR FROM THE PRISON, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Photo Credit: Eric Kerchner for CBS News/“60 Minutes”
In His First Television Interview, Mohamedou Slahi Describes His Torture and How Some of His Guards Became Like Family
Mohamedou Slahi, whose personal enhanced interrogation program was directly approved by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and has since been outlawed, praised the American people for allowing him to write a book about his experience at Guantanamo Bay. The former detainee was the only one held at Guantanamo to write a book that was published while he was still in the prison. Now, in his first television interview since being released last October, he tells his remarkable story on 60 MINUTES. Holly Williams went to Slahi’s home country of Mauritania to interview him for the two-part report to be broadcast on Sunday, March 12 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Slahi, who spoke almost no English when he arrived at Guantanamo, soaked up the language by reading popular books and conversing with his guards and interrogators. Guantanamo Diary, published with the help of his lawyers, was reviewed in the New York Times. He lit up when Williams showed him a copy of the review that he had never seen before. “That shows the greatness of American people. Not my greatness. Because American people believe in justice. And they decided to give me a forum, to give me a voice.”
Slahi also told Williams that his guards became like family to him. One of those guards who wrote a letter to the review board in support of Slahi’s release appears in the report and tells Williams, “He wasn't this horrible terrorist that, you know, I was expecting to go guard. I was told everybody there was the worst of the worst, and this guy comes out with a smile on his face.”
Slahi says he went to Afghanistan twice in the early 1990s only to fight the Communists backed by the Soviet Union, who were also opposed by the United States. He also says he then severed his ties to Al Qaeda, whom he had joined to take part in the jihad. He denies ever having anything to do with terrorism but admits to personal and familial ties to Al Qaeda, including having a cousin who was a close advisor to Osama bin Laden. When he received a call from that cousin that was apparently placed from Osama bin Laden’s phone, it made him a target for U.S. law enforcement, and after the attacks of 9/11, he was arrested in Mauritania and taken to Jordan by the CIA, before eventually being sent to Guantanamo and tortured.
There was isolation, constant interrogation and sleep deprivation, and they also falsely told him his mother was being brought to Guantanamo Bay, he says. Slahi described being forced to drink salt water and then says his uniform was packed with ice. “Inside your uniform. Ice cube, full. My body was full. And then I was, like, shaking uncontrollably like this. They start hitting me everywhere, hitting,” he tells Williams. He thinks the beating lasted about three hours and said, “I was moaning like a woman giving birth.” Watch an excerpt.
“They broke me. I told…the boss of my team, ‘You write anything and I sign it.’” Slahi says he told interrogators that he was an active recruiter for Al Qaeda and was involved in a plan to blow up the CN Tower in Toronto, but that plot never actually existed. “I was afraid of false confessing, but it was a relief because now he – the captain could not torture me anymore.” Slahi says his interrogator could not sell his false confessions up the chain of command. “And then they pretty much told him, ‘This is a bunch of B.S.’”
Slahi’s life changed after that. He was given special privileges and living quarters and after more than another decade in U.S. custody was released, but the ride home was the same as the ride to Guantanamo: he was shackled to a seat and blindfolded for the 10-hour flight. Asked by Williams whether he protested such treatment, he replies, “Why in the world should I ask any questions? I didn't want them to change their mind.”
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 12
TBD -- A Russian opposition activist has been brought to the brink of death twice by a mysterious toxin. Vladimir Kara-Murza is just one of several Kremlin critics who have been the victims of unsolved shootings, suicides and poisonings. Lesley Stahl reports. Shachar Bar-On and Alexandra Poolos are the producers.
PRISONER 760 -- A man who was tortured and held in the prison at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 14 years tells his remarkable story on 60 MINUTES. Mohamedou Slahi speaks to Holly Williams in his first television interview. Keith Sharman is the producer. THIS IS A DOUBLE LENGTH SEGMENT.
ON “60 MINUTES,” THIS SUNDAY: CAN FRENCH POPULIST CANDIDATE MARINE LE PEN RIDE A HARD LINE ON IMMIGRATION TO THE PRESIDENCY LIKE DONALD TRUMP DID?
Also Like President Trump, She Pushes a Skeptical View of NATO and a Soft Approach to Russia
Could a controversial French politician promising, much like Donald Trump did, to rein in immigration win the French presidency? Populist politician Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Front party, speaks to Anderson Cooper for a 60 MINUTES report Sunday, March 5 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Like President Trump, Marine Le Pen takes a hard line on immigration and champions the unemployed workers of France, who she says have been harmed by globalization. Her views have resonated within the French electorate. She wants to drastically reduce legal immigration and deport all illegal immigrants, and she says she would also like to ban the wearing of conspicuous religious garb in public, including Muslim headscarves and yarmulkes.
One thing Le Pen and some other French conservatives are upset about is a full-body swimsuit called the Burqini, which French Muslims have been wearing to the beach. Le Pen mentioned the Burqini to make a broader point about immigration and assimilation in France, enlisting a French film star of the 1960s and ‘70s to help illustrate it. “[France] isn't Burqinis on the beach. France is Brigitte Bardot. That's France,” she tells Cooper. Is she trying to “make France great again,” just as Donald Trump promised during the campaign to “make America great again?” asks Cooper. “Of, course,” she replies. “I’ve been saying so for many years.”
She is also like President Trump in her attitude toward Russia. Calling the notion of a Russian threat a “scam,” Le Penn says, “I'll tell you what the danger is for Europe. It’s carrying out a cold war against Russia and pushing Russia into China’s arms. That’s the threat.”
President Donald Trump does not condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin either, despite Russia’s military incursions into Ukraine. But Le Pen insists her intention is not to champion Putin, but rather to look out for France. “Look. I'm not a fan in a rock concert, you see. I am a political leader in a great nation of the world. What interests me are France's interests,” she tells Cooper.
Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a French politician who co-founded the National Front and became infamous for anti-Semitic remarks. He was repeatedly found guilty in court of questioning the Holocaust. She has denounced her father’s extreme politics and says the two are now estranged, but his reputation still casts a shadow over her career.
IN HIS FIRST INTERVIEW ABOUT THE EL FARO’S BLACK BOX, NTSB INVESTIGATOR RECOUNTS LISTENING TO THE LAST WORDS OF THE DOOMED CREW, SUNDAY, ON “60 MINUTES”
Perhaps the hardest part of their jobs to investigate and explain the sinking of the El Faro was listening to the doomed crew’s last words on the vessel’s voyage data recorder. In his first interview about that task, the National Transportation Safety Board’s lead investigator Brian Young recalls how it felt to hear those voices. Scott Pelley’s report on the final chapter of the El Faro investigation will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday, March 5 (7:00-8:00PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
The cargo ship El Faro sank during Hurricane Joaquin en route from Jacksonville, Fla., to Puerto Rico on Oct. 1, 2015; all 33 men and women aboard perished. The wreck, in two pieces nearly three miles below the Atlantic, wasn’t located until a month later. But the voyage data recorder, the most important clue in the investigation, was not found in either place. Six months later, searchers finally located it. A special remotely operated vehicle was needed to recover the recording device from the extreme depth.
Young and his team listened to all 26 hours of the recording. The experience was difficult for the investigators, many of whom are former mariners.
“It was incredibly moving…Nobody spoke. We were watching the clock. We knew when that recording was going to end, and we knew what a tragic ending it was going to be,” recalls Young. “Whereas the crew did not know that. That was very difficult for us, to watch that clock count down to the end of the recording…really tough to listen to.” Watch the excerpt.
Titled “Voices of the Lost,” the segment is Pelley’s second story on the sinking of the El Faro, the worst U.S. maritime loss of life in 35 years. He also interviews Safety Board investigator Eric Stolzenberg and some of the victims’ family members.
Pelley’s first report documented the hunt for the El Faro aboard the USNS Apache, the search vessel tasked with finding the wreck.
“60 MINUTES” FOLLOWS THE LARGEST AIRLIFT OF LIONS IN HISTORY, AS 33 ARE RESCUED FROM CIRCUSES AND FLOWN TO FREEDOM IN AN AFRICAN SANCTUARY, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 5
It was a happy ending for 33 circus lions that lived lives of beatings and confinement according to the animal rights advocates who rescued them in South America. 60 MINUTES cameras followed the big cats as they were prepared for their flight to a comfortable, peaceful retirement in a sanctuary in South Africa. Bill Whitaker reports on this journey to freedom, believed to be the largest airlift of lions ever undertaken, on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, March 5 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
The lions gained their freedom through the efforts of Jan Creamer and Tim Phillips, who started Animal Defenders International to rescue animals from circuses. The team recruits circus workers to secretly record beatings and other cruel treatment of the animals. Their work has helped lead to local laws passed in 15 U.S. states and 20 countries prohibiting the use of wild animals in circuses. The airlift was the result of animal rights laws enacted in Peru and Colombia. Watch an excerpt.
Some circuses claim they train animals with food and positive reinforcement, but Creamer and Phillips say circus tricks are unnatural acts animals only do under threat of pain.
Whitaker spoke to them in Peru before the flight. “Using violence is the way that these animals are made to do things that they don’t want to do,” says Creamer. The videos they offered show animals being whipped, kicked and punched. Phillips says the images can really capture the public’s attention. “The reaction was instant. I mean it really was just outrage. And then the politicians were starting to hear about it and say, ‘Well, we should probably have legislation here,’” he tells Whitaker.
Animal Defenders International often facilitates the relocation of the animals because local authorities do not have the ability to do so. 60 MINUTES cameras were there as the group got 24 of the lions into traveling crates for the flight.
Cameras were also there for the happy ending, inside a lush preserve in South Africa. While there, the cats could experience simple things they never knew in their caged existence, like the feel of grass, trees and the freedom to roam some thirty acres. “Seeing these animals when you’ve taken them to as close as we can give them to freedom really is what it’s all about,” says Phillips.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, MARCH 5
LE PEN – Marine Le Pen, a candidate in France’s upcoming presidential race, is riding a populist political tide similar to those in the U.S. and Britain. Anderson Cooper interviews a controversial political star whose meteoric rise has shocked the political establishment. Michael Gavshon, Francois Bringer and David M. Levine are the producers.
VOICES OF THE LOST – The discovery of the doomed ship’s Voyage Data Recorder sheds new light on the deadliest U.S. maritime disaster in 35 years, in which 33 lost their lives in the Bermuda Triangle. Scott Pelley reports. Patricia Shevlin and Miles Doran are the producers.
SAVING THE LIONS – Thirty-three circus lions that lived lives of beatings and confinement according to the animal rights advocates who rescued them are airlifted to a comfortable, peaceful retirement in a sanctuary in South Africa. 60 MINUTES cameras followed the big cats’ journey, and Bill Whitaker speaks to their saviors. Robert Anderson and Aaron Weisz are the producers.
“60 MINUTES PRESENTS: BEHIND BARS,” SUNDAY, FEB. 26, 7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT
EL CHAPO – U.S. and Mexican authorities give Bill Whitaker the inside story of the hunt for and recapture of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the world’s most wanted man who escaped imprisonment for the second time last year. Howard Rosenberg and Ana Real are the producers.
LIFE AFTER DEATH ROW – Three unjustly convicted people who spent years in prison and then were exonerated tell Scott Pelley how they are adjusting to being free. Henry Schuster is the producer.
THE MUSIC OF ZOMBA PRISON – Beautiful music created by inmates and their guards offers happiness and hope behind prison walls. Anderson Cooper reports from Malawi, Africa, where the Zomba Prison Project is making a difference. Michael Gavshon and David Levine are the producers.
SPECIAL EDITION OF “60 MINUTES,” 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT
THE ALZHEIMER’S LABORATORY – Scientists are hoping volunteers from the world’s largest concentration of people with a rare genetic mutation that causes early-onset Alzheimer’s may help prevent the disease in others someday. Lesley Stahl goes to Medellin, Colombia. Shari Finkelstein is the producer. THIS IS A DOUBLE LENGTH SEGMENT
TAKING ON THE EIGER – JT Holmes flew, skied and then jumped off the iconic Swiss peak, pulling a parachute to break his 100-mph free fall. 60 MINUTES cameras were there to record the breathtaking event, tried for first time. Anderson Cooper reports. Tom Anderson is the producer.
FOR THE FIRST TIME, FORMER STAR GYMNASTS DESCRIBE THE SEXUAL ABUSE THEY SAY WAS INFLICTED BY THE U.S. NATIONAL GYMNASTICS TEAM DOCTOR, LAWRENCE NASSAR, SUNDAY, ON “60 MINUTES”
Lawyer for the Women Says Abuse Goes Back to 1996 Olympics,
Involves Possibly Hundreds of Victims
Three former members of the U.S. National Gymnastics team, one of them an Olympic medalist, describe for the first time the sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of the team’s doctor, Dr. Lawrence Nassar. The women’s attorney, who is suing USA Gymnastics for failing to protect the women, believes hundreds of athletes may have been abused going back to the 1996 Olympic Games. Dr. Jon LaPook reports this story for 60 MINUTES on Sunday, Feb. 19 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Dr. Nassar, currently in custody on charges of criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography unrelated to the gymnastics team, told the women and girls at the time that he was performing medical treatment on them.
Jessica Howard was the U.S. National champion in rhythmic gymnastics from 1999 to 2001. She recalls one session with Dr. Nassar. “He started massaging me. And he had asked me not to wear any underwear. And then he just continued to go into more and more intimate places,” she tells LaPook. “I remember thinking something was off, but I didn't feel like I was able to say anything because he was, you know, this very high profile doctor,” says Howard. The girls questioned Nassar’s behavior among themselves. “The girls would say, ‘Yeah, he touches you funny,’” she recalls.
Jeanette Antolin, who competed with the U.S. National Team from 1995 to 2000, felt that way, too. “I remember being uncomfortable because of the area. But, in my mind, I was like, ‘If this helps, I'll do anything.’” She did not complain. “It was treatment. You don’t complain about treatment,” she tells LaPook. Watch the excerpt.
California attorney John Manly represents Howard, Antolin and more than 40 others, including a woman who was 9 years old when the alleged abuse took place. He says Nassar abused many more women. “We know that at least 60 have come forward, but my best estimate is it’s in the hundreds and possibly more,” he tells LaPook. Manley believes the alleged abuse began over 20 years ago. “I believe that, at the end of the day, there are members of every single Olympic team since 1996 he did this to.”
USA Gymnastics declined to speak with 60 MINUTES on camera. In written statements, the organization said that weeks after it learned of a complaint about Dr. Nassar in 2015, it relieved Nassar of his duties with the national team and notified the FBI.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, FEB. 19
THE NORTH KOREAN THREAT – A defector from North Korea tells Bill Whitaker the U.S. shouldn’t underestimate the military threat from Kim Jung Un. 60 MINUTES goes to the front lines where the first casualties would be taken. Guy Campanile and Andrew Bast are the producers.
THE REMINGTON 700 – Lesley Stahl reports on the popular hunting rifle involved in several shooting tragedies and that thousands have claimed can fire without someone pulling its trigger. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.
USA GYMNASTICS – Former star gymnasts describe for the first time the sexual abuse they say was inflicted by the U.S. National Gymnastics Team doctor, Dr. Lawrence Nassar. Dr. Jonathan LaPook reports. Andy Court and Sarah Fitzpatrick are the producers
MAN CONVICTED IN SHOOTING WHERE HE SAID THE RIFLE ACCIDENTLY FIRED WITHOUT HIS PULLING THE TRIGGER IS RELEASED – “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY
Zac Stringer, right, greets his father, Roger, after his early release last October.
The Remington 700 Rifle at Issue Is under Recall
A young man from Enon, Miss., was released early from a 10-year prison sentence he was serving for the shooting death of his little brother. 60 MINUTES reports this Sunday that Zac Stringer, who was 15 when he shot his brother, has been insisting for years that the rifle went off without his finger on the trigger. Stringer, now 20, was granted a good behavior release while 60 MINUTES was investigating the Remington 700 rifle used in the shooting. The gun has a trigger mechanism called the X Mark Pro that has since been recalled by the company because it can inadvertently discharge. Remington has received hundreds of complaints that rifles with this trigger produced between 2006 and April 2014 have fired without the trigger pulled. This information was not public during Stringer’s trial.
Lesley Stahl’s report includes Stringer’s father, Roger, who had testified against his son during his trial but now believes he’s innocent. It will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Feb. 19 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
An excerpt of the report appears below. Please credit 60 MINUTES. Watch the excerpt.
THAT RIFLE IS STILL BEING HELD AT THE LOCAL COURT HOUSE. A STATE FORENSIC EXPERT DID TEST IT BEFORE THE TRIAL, BUT HAL KITTRELL, THE PROSECUTOR IN THE CASE, SAYS HE DIDN’T KNOW THERE HAD BEEN OTHER INSTANCES OF THE GUN GOING OFF BY ITSELF.
STAHL: If you had known about this issue with the gun, the trigger problem, would you have gone ahead with the trial, would things have gone differently?
KITTRELL: I say this, Lesley, I mean, had we known that there was a problem with the trigger before we were getting ready for trial, I can assure you we would've looked into that. We would've assessed this case based on that evidence, there's no question about that.
SHORTLY AFTER WE APPROACHED THE PRISON TO INTERVIEW ZAC, ROGER UNEXPECTEDLY GOT WORD THAT AFTER 5 YEARS BEHIND BARS, HIS SON WOULD BE RELEASED FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR. ROGER NOW BELIEVES HIS SON IS INNOCENT AND SAYS HE WILL SOON ASK THE MISSSISSIPI SUPREME COURT TO RECONSIDER ZAC’S CONVICTION. HE’S ALSO WRITTEN TO THE JUDGE IN THE CLASS-ACTION CASE ASKING HIM TO HOLD REMINGTON’S FEET TO THE FIRE.
STAHL: What would you like to see Remington do now?
ROGER: Eliminate the danger that is lurking in so many households.
“60 MINUTES PRESENTS: A FRONT ROW SEAT” SUNDAY, FEB. 5, 7:00-8:00PM ET/PT
HAMILTON – 60 MINUTES will offer an elongated “director’s cut” with previously unseen material from Charlie Rose’s original report about the unorthodox musical. Based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, the show and its diverse cast are creating waves on Broadway and beyond, while smashing box office records and winning 11 Tony Awards. Graham Messick is the producer. THIS IS A DOUBLE-LENGTH SEGMENT.
THE POPE’S CHOIR – The mission of the oldest choir in the world is to create the sounds of beauty and divinity that accompany the Pope as he says mass or officiates at Vatican events. Charlie Rose meets the members and the maestro of the Pope’s Choir to report on how they achieve their celestial sound. Draggan Mihailovich and Sabina Castelfranco are the producers.
ENGINEER WHO DESIGNED SECRET BIKE MOTORS THINKS THEY HAVE BEEN USED TO CHEAT IN PRO CYCLING SINCE 1998, SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Three-time Tour de France Winner Greg LeMond Says He Can’t Trust Cycling Victories
The Hungarian designer of a secret bike motor tells Bill Whitaker he thinks the motors have been used to cheat in professional cycling as far back as 1998. Istvan Varjas speaks to Whitaker for a 60 MINUTES investigation into mechanical cheating in a sport already infamous for its doping scandals. One of the sport’s champions, three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, is convinced the motors are being used. He’s also in the 60 MINUTES report, to be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 29 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Varjas, a scientist and former cyclist, says he first designed a motor to fit inside a bike’s frame in 1998. He says a friend found an anonymous buyer who offered him nearly $2 million for it. Varjas says he took the money and agreed not to work on such motors, nor sell or speak of them, for 10 years. Asked whether he believes hidden motors like his have been used since then, he answers, “I think. Yes.”
Varjas claims it’s not his fault if professional cyclists ended up with his bike. “If a grandfather came and bought a bike and after it went to…his grandson who is racing, it's not my problem,” he says. Asked whether he would sell a motor to a person who told him he was going to cheat with it, he replies with a little laugh, “If the money is big, why not?”
60 MINUTES met Varjas in a Budapest bike shop where he demonstrated his motor designs and completed motorized bicycles that he sells to wealthy clients. He showed 60 MINUTES how a secret switch can engage the hidden motors or, in a more sophisticated model, be engaged when a racer’s heart rate peaks. He allowed Whitaker to test ride some of the bikes with hidden motors. Watch the video.
The first time it was publicly suspected a motor was being used in professional cycling was in 2010 when an Italian rider raced at an unusually high speed. That rider denied using a motor. There have been other suspicious incidents, and one rider was caught with a secret motor in 2016. Jean Pierre Verdy, former testing director of the French Anti-doping Agency, says the sport has a problem. “It’s been the last three to four years when I was told about the use of the motors,” Verdy tells Whitaker. “There's a problem. By 2015, everyone was complaining and I said, ‘Something’s got to be done.’”
LeMond, an outspoken advocate for drug testing, wants his former sport to do more testing for the motors, too. “This is curable. This is fixable. I don't trust it until they figure out…how to take the motor out. I won't trust any victories of the Tour de France,” says LeMond.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, JAN. 29, 2017
THE REMINGTON 700 – Lesley Stahl reports on the popular hunting rifle involved in several shooting tragedies. Thousands have claimed the rifle can fire without someone pulling its trigger. Shachar Bar-On is the producer.
AVALANCHE – Steve Kroft speaks to the survivors and rescue team of the Italian ski resort that was inundated by an Avalanche, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 20. Michael Karzis, Maria Gavrilovic and Sabina Castelfranco are the producers.
ENHANCING THE BIKE – Have secret motors been used to cheat in pro cycling? Bill Whitaker leads a 60 MINUTES investigation into mechanical cheating in a sport already infamous for its doping scandals. Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados are the producers.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SAYS THE TEST NOW FOR DONALD TRUMP, AFTER AN “IMPROVISATIONAL” CAMPAIGN, IS EXECUTING HIS VISION, SUNDAY ON CBS
President Obama Makes His Last Network TV Appearance in a Presidential Interview Sunday on “60 MINUTES PRESENTS Barack Obama: Eight Years in the White House”
President Barack Obama says the presidential campaign of Donald Trump was “improvisational,” but he doesn’t think the president-elect can be improvisational in office. Instead, Trump is now facing the real test of whether he and the people he brings into his administration can execute his vision, Obama tells Steve Kroft in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on CBS.
The interview with Kroft, Obama’s last appearance on network television in a presidential interview, will be part of 60 MINUTES PRESENTS BARACK OBAMA: EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. The hour-long program will also follow the 44th president’s journey through his own words in the 60 MINUTES interviews he has done with Kroft, beginning when Obama declared his candidacy in 2007, through the elections and the milestones of his eight years in the White House. 60 MINUTES PRESENTS BARACK OBAMA: EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE will be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 15 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
An excerpt of the interview was broadcast on CBS THIS MORNING, and a transcript is below.
STEVE KROFT: You have to admit that this is one of the strangest transitions (LAUGH) in history.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It's unusual. I’ll agree with that...and I suspect – I suspect the president-elect would agree with that. Look, he was an unconventional candidate.
STEVE KROFT: Right.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I don’t think there’s anybody who’s run a campaign like his successfully in modern history, not that I can think of. And as a consequence, because he didn't have the support of many of the establishment in his own party, because – you know, he ran sort of an improvisational campaign –
STEVE KROFT: Can you run an improvisational presidency?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I don't think so. And so now he's in the process of building up an organization. And we'll have to see how that works. And it'll be a test, I think, for him and the people that he's designated to be able to execute on his vision.
STEVE KROFT: And I don't want people to think that we're condemning Donald Trump. But I think, as you said earlier, it's unusual. He seems to have spent a good deal of this time sending out tweets that – you know, that – that the United States must strengthen and expand its nuclear ability. That Meryl Streep is an overrated Hillary flunkie. You're watching this like everybody else. I mean, what's going on?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You know, you're going to have to talk to him. (LAUGH) But here's what I think. First of all, I think everybody has to acknowledge – don't underestimate the guy, because he's going to be the 45th president of the United States in about two weeks.
The one thing I've said to him directly, and I would advise my Republican friends in Congress and supporters around the country, is just make sure that as we go forward, certain norms, certain institutional traditions don't get eroded. Because there's a reason they're in place.
ENDS
PRESIDENT OBAMA APPEARS FOR THE LAST TIME IN A PRESIDENTIAL INTERVIEW ON NETWORK TELEVISION, IN “60 MINUTES PRESENTS” BARACK OBAMA: EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE, SUNDAY, JAN. 15 ON CBS
PHOTO CREDIT Aaron Tomlinson for CBSNews/60Minutes
President Barack Obama will appear in his last presidential interview on network television on 60 MINUTES PRESENTS “Barack Obama: Eight Years in the White House,” an hour-long special to be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 15 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
The President chose to return to 60 MINUTES one last time, where he made much news and revealed himself in numerous interviews to Steve Kroft, who began covering him closely nearly two years before he entered the White House.
Kroft speaks to him once again in an interview conducted this week at the White House about current topics, including President-Elect Donald Trump, and his two-term legacy. The hour will also follow the 44th president’s journey through his own words in the 60 MINUTES interviews he did with Kroft, beginning when Mr. Obama declared his candidacy in 2007, through the elections and the milestones of his eight years in the White House.
Some of the milestones President Obama talked about in big 60 MINUTES interviews include his historic election in his first interview as the president-elect in November 2008; his first two months in office in March 2009; facing down opposition to the Affordable Care Act in September 2009; the Democrats’ losses in the 2010 mid-term elections; his killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011; and his discussion of the Syrian civil war and Russia’s involvement in it in October of 2015.
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