Share This Episode
CBS Sunday Morning Jane Pauley Logo

CBS Sunday Morning,

CBS Sunday Morning / Jane Pauley
The Truth Network Radio
November 15, 2020 12:04 pm

CBS Sunday Morning,

CBS Sunday Morning / Jane Pauley

On-Demand Podcasts NEW!

This broadcaster has 362 podcast archives available on-demand.


November 15, 2020 12:04 pm

President Barack Obama talks with Gayle King in his first TV interview since the election of Joe Biden. Conor Knighton digs into the artistic pies created by Instagram star Lauren Ko, author of “Pieometry”; Alina Cho sits down with Leonard Lauder, chairman emeritus and former CEO of global beauty behemoth Estée Lauder Companies. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell talk with Tracy Smith about sharing love, and the screen, together.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Charlie Kirk Show
Charlie Kirk
Sekulow Radio Show
Jay Sekulow & Jordan Sekulow
Discerning The Times
Brian Thomas

Our CBS Sunday morning podcast is sponsored by Edward Jones. College tours with your oldest daughter. Updating the kitchen to the appropriate decade.

Retiring on the coast. Life is full of moments that matter, and Edward Jones helps you make the most of them. That's why every Edward Jones financial advisor works with you to build personalized strategies for now and down the road. So when your next moment arrives, big or small, you're ready for it. Life is for living.

Let's partner for all of it. Learn more at edwardjones.com. Good morning.

I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday morning. We've been hearing a lot about the aftermath of the race between President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. This morning, we'll talk about that and a lot more with former President Barack Obama. His interview with Gayle King of CBS this morning is his first since the election.

Let's go. We haven't heard much from him for the last four years, but former President Barack Obama is no longer holding back. It was important for me as somebody who had served in that office to simply let people know this is not normal.

Barack Obama on the election, his presidency, and family life in the White House ahead this Sunday morning. And then we'll be in conversation with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, two movie A-listers with a lot more than that in common. Tracy Smith does the honors.

Sometimes I think you actually enjoy these little dangerous escapades. This year, one of the best known couples in history is being played by one of the best known couples in Hollywood, and it seems they've been together almost as long. Was there a first impression? You know what?

I still haven't forgotten it, and I've forgotten a lot of stuff now. A Little Magic with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell coming up on Sunday morning. Alina Cho talks with Leonard Lauder, son of cosmetics queen Estee Lauder. Steve Hartman has the tale of Ethel the pig's very close call, plus commentary from a masked Jim Gaffigan, and more on Sunday morning the 15th of November 2020.

We'll be back in a moment. To begin this morning, former President Barack Obama. As we mentioned, it's his first interview since his Vice President Joe Biden became the nation's president-elect.

President Obama talks about that and much more with CBS This Morning's Gayle King. Good to see you, the imaginary. There you go. Good to see you.

Uh-oh, don't lose your mask now. Almost four years after he left the White House. We all good? We got speed? Former President Barack Obama is ready to talk.

Let's go. He's been looking back while writing the first volume of a memoir about his presidency. The feeling that I had entered, not an office, but a sanctum of democracy.

President of the United States. Take us to that day when you walked in. You know, Inauguration Day is a little bit about everybody else. It's a little bit like your wedding.

You're so busy trying to make sure you're doing everything right and everybody's where they're supposed to be that you can't catch your breath. The first time I walked in as president by myself, though, and sat at the Resolute Desk, I think you feel a reverence for the office. I think it was President Lincoln who said if you weren't religious before you got into office, you sure are on your knees praying once you're in office. President Barack Obama inherited a country teetering on the brink of financial calamity.

Recession, if not another depression. But as he tried to work with Congress, he immediately encountered a wall of resistance. To deny President Obama a second term. We're going to make you a one-term president.

Mitch McConnell said that out loud. How do you deal with that type of hostility? Part of what I try to describe is how early that obstructionist attitude starts. It started on day one because we were trying to pass the Recovery Act, the stimulus package. People were losing their jobs, they were losing their homes, and the economy was collapsing. At the time, I thought, all right, well, obviously Republicans aren't going to agree with me on everything, but on this, all the economists agree this is what we need.

They'll give some cooperation on this. And we didn't get any. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eventually did pass with just three Republican senators voting yes.

But the die was cast. As the president then set out to overhaul the health care system, opposition to his agenda only increased. When he addressed Congress in September of his first year in office, the hostility was overt and it was startling. One of the big examples that many people saw of disrespect, you're laying out the Affordable Care Act, joint session of Congress, and in the middle of your speech, Congressman Joe Wilson, South Carolina, yells in the middle of that, you lie. I heard an audible gasp and I looked at you.

You know we could see the veins on your head on the side. So I'm wondering, what did you think in that moment and what did you want to do and what did you do? I write about this.

I know, that's why I'm asking you. I am shocked. And my initial instinct is, let me walk down and smack this guy on the head.

What is he thinking? It's not true. And instead I just said, that's not true.

And I just move on. He called afterwards to apologize. Although, as I point out in the book, he saw a huge spike in campaign contributions from Republicans across the country who thought he had done something heroic. Throughout his term, President Obama was sometimes criticized for seeming aloof, not playing the DC political game. Do you think you made enough of an effort to reach out to the other side of the aisle?

Yes. We tried everything. We had Super Bowl parties. We'd invite them to dinner.

I'd go to their caucus meetings. The fuss of being president, the pomp, the press, the physical constraints, all that I could have done without. The actual work though, the work I loved even when it didn't love me back. As Barack Obama tried to adjust to the presidency and the politics, his family was trying to adjust to life in the White House bubble. There's this weird isolation that you begin to feel. Did you like that feeling? No.

I don't think you ever get fully used to it. Our conversation Wednesday afternoon was at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, where a painting of Michelle Obama hangs among the first ladies. And that whole political thing, definitely not her idea. She made it clear she was never into politics, but she always supported you. And there were times when you said, when we do this, she goes, well, wait, what we? I quote her as saying, not we, you. I am mindful of the sacrifices that she made.

But the good news is, is that for whatever reason, she has forgiven me, sort of. She still reminds me occasionally of what she put up with. The Obamas were one of the few first families with young children to have moved into the White House.

Malia was 10, and Sasha was only seven years old. The impact on father and daughters cut both ways. You said you can remember missing teeth and their round cheeks and their pigtails, that they didn't seem to suffer in terms of lack of time with dad. But you said you were always very acutely aware of it. You know, I probably suffered more from not being able to do some of the ordinary dad things that I had done before we got to the White House.

I'd come from some security briefing in the Situation Room and reading about terrorist threats and this and that. And then I'm sitting down and Malia and Sasha are talking about like, oh, that boy was so stupid. You know, it takes you out of yourself in your head and it reminds you of what's good in the world. Being your First Lady has been the greatest honor of my life, and I hope I've made you proud. The former president says as the family left the White House for the last time in 2017, they were able to exhale, Michelle Obama in particular. When the presidency was over, two things happened. One was, objectively, I just had more time. But two is that she was able to let go of some of the stress of just feeling as if I've got to get everything right all the time.

I'm being watched all the time. You know, her releasing her breath that I think she'd been holding for close to 10 years at that point. Now Barack Obama can look back on his successes and failures. He had come into office facing high expectations, both as the first black president and at the age of 47, one of the youngest. A lot of folks in the same way that they expected, now we're in a post-racial America because we elected a black president. I think a lot of people expected, well, we got this young progressive president and now suddenly we're going to eliminate inequality and, you know, we're immediately going to have universal health care and we're going to have climate change legislation, immigration reform and criminal justice reform and all the things that I wanted to get done. But what I understood very early on is the federal government headed by the president is an ocean liner.

It is not a speed boat. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, the work you've done may be appreciated as having been good and helpful, but at the time it can feel like, wow, this isn't happening fast enough. President Obama's successor was Donald Trump. Some have seen Mr. Trump's victory in part as a backlash to the Obama presidency. Donald Trump often raises eyebrows when he says he's done more for black America and people of color. Yes, it does raise eyebrows.

You are correct. I have done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln. What do you think when you hear that?

Do you take that as an insult to you or the work that you've done? I think it's fair to say that there are many things he says that I do not take personally or seriously, although I think they can often be destructive and harmful. President Barack Hussein Obama comes in.

Whether he took things Donald Trump said personally or not, Barack Obama emerged front and center in the last month of his former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign. I've never lost hope over these last four years. I've been mad. And he didn't pull any punches.

I've been frustrated. Michelle Obama always says when they go low, we go high. It seemed to many people when you were on the campaign trail for Joe Biden, Trump cares about feeding his ego.

Joe cares about keeping you safe and your family safe. It wasn't a matter of going low or high. You went in.

They called it Barack Obama unleashed. Was it personal for you or did you just think I've had it? It wasn't personal, actually.

You didn't have an I've had it moment? The truth is, everything I said, I was just stating facts. You've got a president right now. He wants full credit for an economy that he inherited.

He wants zero blame for the pandemic he ignored. It was out of character for you to speak up, Mr. President, that way. I was not the person who, in a White House briefing room, said, is bleach the way to solve COVID? I wasn't doing a routine. I was repeating words that I heard.

It is not my preference to be out there. I think we were in a circumstance in this election in which certain norms, certain institutional values that are so extraordinarily important had been breached, that it was important for me as somebody who had served in that office to simply let people know this is not normal. This election is over. While Joe Biden waits to assume the presidency, President Trump continues without evidence to challenge the election's outcome.

They're trying to steal an election. And many of Mr. Trump's supporters continue to stand behind him. 72 million people voted for Donald Trump. What does that say to you about the state of this country? Well, what it says is that we are still deeply divided. The power of that alternative worldview that's presented in the media that those voters consume, it carries a lot of weight. Are you worried about that?

Yes. It's very hard for our democracy to function if we are operating on just completely different sets of facts. But it's clear as we sit here today, we're not going to have a peaceful transition. I think about John McCain calling. George and Laura Bush welcoming you and Michelle Obama to the White House.

Could not have been more gracious. I remember you inviting Donald Trump to the White House. If you succeed, then the country succeeds. I wish that you succeed because we want the country to succeed. He does not seem to have taken a page out of any of those playbooks.

No. So what is at stake here? Well, look, Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.

Kamala Harris will be the next vice president. There is no legal basis. There's no... He's getting support from members of the Republican Party who are not challenging him. And that has been disappointing.

Yeah. But it's been sort of par for the course during these four years. They obviously didn't think there was any fraud going on because they didn't say anything about it for the first two days. But there's damage to this because what happens is that the peaceful transfer of power, the notion that any of us who attain an elected office, whether it's a dog catcher or a president, are servants of the people.

It's a temporary job. We're not above the rules. We're not above the law.

That's the essence of our democracy. And as to advice for his old running mate? He doesn't need my advice.

And I will help him in any ways that I can. Now, I'm not planning to suddenly work on the White House staff or something. No cabinet position? There are probably some things I would not be doing because Michelle would leave me. Yes.

She'd be like, what? You're doing what? The goal of the foundation. What he is doing these days, running a charitable foundation, designing his presidential library in Chicago, and along with Michelle producing for Netflix. Gone are the trappings of the office, such as a presidential motorcade clearing his path.

Instead, Barack Obama is rediscovering the simple things. I'm driving along. I'm still not driving. But you're in the car. But I'm in the car in the backseat and I'm looking at my iPad or something. And suddenly we stop and I'm like, what's going on? There's a red light. There's a car right next to us.

Some kids are eating a burrito or something in the backseat. Oh, back to life. This is Intelligence Matters with former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell. Bridge Colby is co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative, a project focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. The United States put our mind to something we can usually figure it out. What people are saying and what we kind of know analytically and empirically is our strategic situation, our military situation is not being matched up with what we're doing.

Follow Intelligence Matters wherever you get your podcasts. This is The Takeout with Major Garrett. This week, Stephen Law, ally of Mitch McConnell and one of Washington's biggest midterm money men, list for me the two Senate races where you think Republicans have the best chance of taking a Democratic seat away. Nevada, New Hampshire. Not Georgia. Well, Georgia is right up there, but New Hampshire is a surprise.

In New Hampshire, people really just kind of don't like Maggie Hassan. For more from this week's conversation, follow The Takeout with Major Garrett on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Steve Hartman has the story of a pig, not in a poke, but in a pickle. Of all the choices, all the places you could click, all the videos you could surf, why would anyone settle on a sleeping pig? It had to be one of the least interesting things on the Internet. Yeah, she's not putting on a show or nothing.

But it was also the least stressful. With political tensions roiling, all Laura Palladino wanted that Friday night was a boring animal live stream. Unfortunately, her desire for drama-free programming came to a crashing halt after the pig knocked over a heat lamp, buried it in straw and set the barn ablaze. And I started freaking out.

And as if that wasn't enough. I was the only one watching. The only one in the world who knew what was happening. Which is what made like my heart sink. Like there was nothing I could do.

And it was terrifying. Laura tried calling the farm, but no one answered. She even tried 911. But what were they going to do? She lived 80 miles away. That's why, deep down, Laura knew it was hopeless. But she kept trying different numbers anyway.

And would you believe? They busted in. She finally got a hold of the farmer, just in time. I started crying. Like this is just a lot. And he was like holding her. He's like, I'm so sorry. Like you could tell how much he loved those animals. I was like, oh, yeah. This week, Laura traveled to June Farms in West Sand Lake, New York to meet farm manager Josh Vicks.

Thank you. Josh had cared for that pig, named Ethel, since it was a piglet. Definitely inspiring to know that there are other people that feel as much affection and love towards these animals that we do.

The only one uninspired was Ethel herself, who appears to have emerged from the ordeal completely unshaken. The farm can now proceed with its plan to breed Ethel, promising the first piglet will be named Laura. I never thought I'd have a pig named after me, but I'll take it. And we'll take her.

Why not? As a reminder that most people are heroes, just waiting for their moment. Hi, girl. Like mother, like son could be the motto of the cosmetics giant Estee Lauder.

Alina Cho talks with a man whose life's work is all about keeping up appearances. For me, this is like memory lane. Many families keep their memories in photo albums. Take this. Oh, my gosh. So this is from 1946? Yeah. Wow. Leonard Lauder keeps his in a company archive.

Everything that we've ever had and done, there's a sample or two here. At 87, Lauder is chairman emeritus and former CEO of the Estee Lauder companies, a 90 billion dollar beauty empire. I tell people that I'm a lipstick salesman.

I love to sell things. He's literally shaped an entire industry. The shape of the lipstick that I use, you created that?

I did. Everyone had a standard bullet shaped lipstick. So I took a Gillette blue blade, sliced it so that it would fit the woman's lips. It all started 74 years ago with his iconic mother, Estee. I remember sitting in my high chair and in the kitchen and I would see her mixing the creams on the stove. She sold her so-called jars of hope initially at beauty salons in New York, tempting women with free samples and a three minute makeover.

I've never seen anyone love to make women beautiful like her. It was in her blood. It was in her blood.

Yeah. It became a family business. Her husband, Joseph, kept the books and a young Leonard packed boxes with a and a young Leonard packed boxes of powder and cleansing oil. We had a little tiny factory and I would go there after school for 25 cents an hour and I'd work. Lauder enlisted in the Navy after college and joined the company in 1958, sharing an office with mom.

And I would listen to her on the phone. And did I learn? Did I learn? He writes about life lessons in his new book, The Company I Keep, equal parts biography, business and tribute to his mother. I want to have the best company in the world. Nothing less than that.

Lauder expanded overseas. He created ClinInk, a risky move to take on rivals. I said, the bigger we get, we're going to have competition. And I said, why wait for someone else to do it? I did it myself. It worked.

Today, the company owns more than 25 brands. This was your mother's office. Yeah, yeah. It's very glamorous.

Yeah, very. As Estee aged, that glamorous life hid a private struggle. Like her mother and sister, Estee was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She died at 97. How hard was it as a son to watch your mother who had been so vibrant start to deteriorate like that? It was very hard. But I remember being with her and my wife Evelyn came into the room and said, Estee, we miss you in the office.

She looked at Evelyn and said, I miss me too. Lauters donated millions to fighting Alzheimer's, just one of his many well-known causes. I rarely simply give money to people and say, oh, you do it. I want it to make our philanthropy transform something. The lifelong art collector made headlines for his pledge to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. One man's gift is about to shake up the world of art. It is worth a billion dollars.

It is worth a billion dollars. Lauter's love of art helped him find love again. After his first wife Evelyn died in 2011, he connected with photographer Judy Glickman, a longtime family friend who had recently lost her husband, Al. He proposes every morning.

Leonard, why is that important to you? Because I want to reinforce every day my love for her. They got married in 2015. She was 76, and he was 81. It took me a little while to, ooh, is this real, and what is happening, and oh, my goodness, am I really going to be starting another whole life? You know, some people might say, you know, you didn't have to get married again. I had to share my life with someone. It's a different stage of life, equally as exciting and as challenging, but just in a very different way, and very special. In his special life, Leonard Lauter says he's learned the ultimate lesson.

It's not all about success. If you had to boil it down and put a message in the bottle, what is the thing that you want to be remembered for? He listened, that's all.

And he was kind. Really? That's it? Yeah. That's it? Yeah. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have been sharing the silver screen and a life together for many a year now. They're in conversation with Tracey Smith. Welcome to the North Pole, Jack.

In the new Netflix film, The Christmas Chronicles 2, you get pretty much what you'd expect from a big holiday movie. Are you really? I am. Uh-uh.

No way. I must be dreaming. Oh, you're not dreaming, Jack. That's Kurt Russell. You're in Santa's village, the real one. The real one, who's arguably the fittest Santa Claus ever.

And of course, that's his longtime real life partner, Goldie Hawn, as the Mrs. I think it should be called Mrs. Claus's village. Me too. Well, I never thought of that. Of course you do.

But it might surprise you to know that for Goldie and Kurt, the clauses are more than merely mythical. I like your approach to these characters because you take them seriously. This is not a caricature or a cartoon. No.

You're right. Very, very seriously. You got to remember, he's a real human being. He's not a comic book character. He's not made up. He was a bishop. He was a man. The question is, of course, is through the myth and the legend and whatnot, how is he still around? How is that possible? But no matter how St. Nicholas, aka Santa, is still around or how he and the Mrs. wound up together, the real life story of Kurt and Goldie has, well, a certain magic all its own.

Presto change-o! Their first meeting, if you can call it that, happened on the set of the 1968 Disney musical, the one and only genuine original family band. Was there a first impression?

I don't know. I mean... I think for me, I mean, he was way too young for me. I mean, I was like dating older guys, right? I was what, 20?

I was only 15 years old, so I didn't have a license. Goldie was a dancer without much of a speaking part. And what's more, the producer didn't like her name. He called me and he said, you know, I know this is sensitive, but you really, your name sounds like a stripper. My mother gave me that name. That was my, that was my great aunt's name, Goldie. And I said, oh, I'm not changing my name.

I'm sorry. I said, you know, my middle name is Jean. What about Goldie Jean?

Would that be, would work for you? And he went, well, I guess it's going to have to work. And I said, gee, I guess it is. Goldie Jean. Goldie Jean. That's where we met. I mean, look at this place.

The army couldn't afford drapes. I mean, I'll be up at the crack of dawn here. But by the 1980s, Goldie Hawn was a name, an Oscar winner.

I think I'll stay. Who could produce a hit movie and star in it too. Lewis.

You were producing, directing, acting at a time when a lot of women were not doing that. Right. How many times did you hear no? Not many. No. But the problem wasn't the no. The problem was the trepidation, really, of other male directors wanting to work with me because they thought that I would want to take over. What you doing in here with a gun snake?

Looking for somebody. For his part, Kurt had shed his wholesome Disney image. For something a little grittier. And when he met Goldie again during his audition for 1984's swing shift, both were divorced and neither was looking for love. Matter of fact, when I met Goldie, I was at a time in my life, in a period in my life where I was very definitely going to put my worst foot forward when it came to any kind of a relationship with the possibility of a relationship. I put my worst foot forward.

If you can handle that, then maybe there's a chance of some reality there of being together. I used to think to myself that. Did you put your worst foot forward? I could hardly say that.

I would say if you've done that with me, I wouldn't be with you today. Well, I think I did. But I did. I did kind of put who I was. Um, well, the first time I met her, I was horribly hungover. Yeah, that's not a good foot forward.

But you were fine. Your worst foot forward. Well, I didn't try to put my best foot forward because it's a hard thing to hold that up. You know, once you've done that, now you've established something that you've set a bar that you can't stay with.

You can't keep. You're really confusing me right now. This is like a group therapy session. In the four decades since they met, Russell and Haun have created some extraordinary characters. But each on their own. Two very separate careers under one roof.

One of them fellas is not what he says he is. Do you guide each other as far as the roles that you've chosen? Are there ones not at all? Do you talk about it before you say yes or no?

Very rarely. He's never made a mistake in terms of what he's decided to do ever. But he's never been bad ever.

And so even movies that I didn't like. You get a lot of pushback on that. No, you've never been bad. I agree with you. I don't think you've ever been bad. You know, but as an actor, I mean, I just think you're amazing.

You don't understand. There are only three ages for women in Hollywood. Babe, district attorney and driving Miss Daisy.

Of course, Goldie hasn't made all that many career missteps either. And when they're not working, they divide their time between homes in Aspen and this one in Los Angeles. How long have you been here? About four years. We built it and it's just so great.

I love it. But they say they're proudest of their blended family. Four children between them with six grandchildren. And it seems enough love to go around. So I'm sure you guys get asked this. What is the secret if you could boil it down? There's no secret. And I love you for asking a question because it's a normal question. But there's two things for me anyway. And it's that you you both want to be together.

I mean, you've got to want to be together. And as long as you, why are you laughing? Just because, because it's you're right. It's up and down.

It's sideways. It's whatever. At the end of the day, what, how do you explain it?

I don't know. I guess it's as simple as saying I, for me, it's the same thing as what you're saying. I call that love. But you can actually survive a relationship in a way that when you get older, you go, oh, I'm so glad I got through whatever period that was. Do you know what I mean? Because the relationships go through periods, sometimes really hard times. But there's nothing sweeter than having a family.

And that is worth everything. Just about everybody, it seems, has something to say about masks, including, of course, our Jim Gaffigan. I'd like to talk to you about masks. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to wear a mask.

At this point, we all know why we're wearing these things. If you leave your house right now and encounter someone, you're going to have to go to the mask on. They'll likely look like me. I mean, they'll be wearing a mask.

Not everyone's as good looking as me. Whenever I see someone with a mask on, they look perfectly normal. They look like a mask pro. My personal experience with masks has not been so smooth. My first obstacle is that, well, most adult masks are too small for my head. You see, I have a big head, both physically and metaphorically. You could actually store another head inside of my head. Like if anyone's missing their head, it might be in here. I've known I've had a large head since middle school when my football coach announced to the entire team that he had to go to the nearby high school to get a helmet that fit my huge head.

Don't worry, those kids were super nice. I don't find wearing a mask particularly comfortable, but that hasn't stopped me from forgetting I'm wearing a mask. On more than one occasion, I've attempted to eat French fries with my mask on. Luckily, I always dip my fries in ketchup, so there's no boost to the ego quite like walking around the world with stains from food on your mask. Is that blood on your mask? No, no, no, no.

It's ketchup. Be safe, everyone. I'm Jane Pauley. We're heading out a little early this week, so please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. The best way to protect the good people is to convict the bad. So here's to us. The Good Fight, the final season, now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-01-28 20:27:29 / 2023-01-28 20:41:04 / 14

Get The Truth Mobile App and Listen to your Favorite Station Anytime