Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday morning. The Washington Mall will soon boast a new memorial, Remembering a war that was over in just six weeks and ended with a resounding American victory. David Martin this morning takes us back to the time of General Norman Schwartzkopf. and Operation Desert Storm, and tells us about the soon-to-be-unveiled memorial in their honor.
And then another name from the past that's moving back into the spotlight, John Bouvier Kennedy, Schlossberg. Jack Schlossberg. the late president's grandson is now a candidate for Congress. and talking with Mo Raka. You know, your first communion was on the cover, the front page of the New York Daily News.
You should have been there. It was an amazing event. Growing up, Jack Schlossberg's parents tried to keep him out of the spotlight. I've been following you on Instagram since I was like 15. But now he's stepping into it.
Politician. I'm the only candidate with a plan for renters. Provocateur. Newsflash, Republicans are lying. And protector of a legacy.
I want to know about what you guys care about. Ahead on Sunday morning. With Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Awards on his resume, composer and lyricist Mark Shaman knows all about scoring big. This morning our Tracy Smith talks with the man behind the music. Um This moment from the film Sleepless in Seattle was brought to you by Mark Shaman, a multi-talented composer who's amassed more film credits, awards, and friends than he can count.
Because I like the way I am. Just a great, great guy and a great talent. How can he know so much? I don't know. Uh The one and only Mark Shaman coming up on Sunday morning.
Also ahead this morning, Luke Burbank introduces us to Dana White. The impresario behind the UFC. The Ultimate Fighting Championship. David Pogue offers an appreciation of the life and music of Neil Sadaka. And more.
On this Sunday morning for the first day of a new month, march first, twenty twenty six. We'll be back after this. This weekend marks 35 years since the end of Operation Desert Storm. the successful US-led military campaign to drive Saddam Hussein's Iraqi invaders out of Kuwait. David Martin has the story of a more recent fight for those who served.
their battle for recognition. Yeah. Five. The first Persian Gulf War lasted six weeks. Kuwait was liberated from the murderous grasp of Saddam Hussein.
And the Iraqi army admitted defeat. at a surrender ceremony presided over by the charismatic general. Woman Schwarzkopf. Congratulations.
Well, I'm not here to give them anything. I'm here to tell them exactly what we expect them to do. Dorman Norman, as he was called, became the most popular battlefield general since World War II. Please be seated. Thank you.
As Commander-in-Chief, President George H.W. Bush. Had an 89% approval rating. And by God, we've kicked Vietnam syndrome once and for all. Thank you very, very much.
And for the first time in a generation. America felt good about its military.
So More than half a million Americans served in Operation Desert Storm. One hundred forty-eight were killed in action. yet to day it is all but forgotten. I just felt like that was not right and that something had to be done to change that. Scott Stump, a lowly Marine Lance corporal in that war, set out to build a memorial to Desert Storm on the National Mall.
probably the most prized real estate in all of America. I'd been to Washington, D.C. one time in my life. That was the summer of eighth grade. I mean, I had no connections, didn't know anybody.
First, she had to persuade Congress to pass a bill authorizing the memorial. It was like pulling teeth to get them to do that. What kind of responses would you get?
Well, there weren't enough people that died. Uh, you know, for there to be a memorial. Every one of those lives is as unique and precious as a snowflake or before his acclaimed volumes on World War II and the Revolutionary War. Pulitzer Prize winning historian Rick Atkinson wrote a book about Desert Storm. As a nation, we should always remember all those who die for us.
The fact that the casualty rate was relatively low compared to the thousands or tens of thousands that many had feared would be the case is a measure of success. We all felt like there was a chance that we might never come home. Plastic outside, inside serrated metal, double one buckshot. The U.S. had not committed so many troops to battle since Vietnam.
We were rallied around the commanding officer one Friday afternoon, and he gave us the speech: you know, look to your left, look to your right. One of you is not going to be coming home. Stump tried to recruit big names to his cause. Like Colin Powell, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs, became one of the breakout stars of Desert Storm. Our strategy to go after this army is very, very simple.
First, we're going to cut it off, and then we're going to kill it. But in an email to Stump, an aide quoted Powell as saying Desert Storm was. A short operation and not an extended war, and he would be surprised that Congress would pass this and allot a place on the mall for such a memorial. He thinks that it's behind us, that the country is not going to support it either politically or financially. And you know, he's obviously wrong.
the main wall that we call it, the storm wall. that tells the story. Of the various phases of Operation Desert Storm. And there's the Stealth fighter. which uh dropped the first bombs on Baghdad.
And then after the air war comes the four-day ground war. The Desert Storm Memorial is scheduled to open in October. and in a prime location.
Next to the Lincoln Memorial, and down the street from the Vietnam Memorial. We had to fight tooth and nail to secure this site and in fact The typical time period for site selection takes 18 months. Ours took 39 grueling months. When you asked for this site, what was the response? You don't belong there.
This isn't important enough to be located in that spot. The location makes its own statement. A visitor is going to say it must be important, otherwise, it wouldn't be right here by the Lincoln Memorial or the Vietnam Memorial. The memorial will cost about forty-two million dollars. all of which Stump had to raise, well over half of it donated by Kuwait.
which owes its freedom to desert storm. Does that bother you that you have to depend on Kuwait to honor war effort. It doesn't bother me from the fact that it's making it happen and we're getting it done. But it's not right. You've succeeded.
And getting this this monument. But it also sounds like in the process You were disillusioned. Absolutely. Been disillusioned at every turn of the way. After the war, the public became disillusioned too.
The people have spoken. And we respect the majesty of the democratic system. President Bush lost his run for re-election. While Saddam Hussein remained in power. Then came 9-11, and and the forever wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.
You're only as good as the last war you fought. who can be shown by history that military power will only take you so far. That the success of Desert Storm is not a predicate for success in future combat. Desert Storm was relegated to a footnote. That doesn't mean it should be forgotten.
We've got a lot of footnotes in our history, and the footnotes are important.
Something like, what, 600,000 served in Desert Storm? Yeah. How do you think they're going to feel? Most of them will think, well, gosh, we thought they were never going to remember. It took 35 years and one man's obsession to construct not just a tribute to those who served.
but also a remembrance of a moment in time. Almost two generations ago, we amassed this very large forest. with a lot of international allies. and very competently set out 6,000 miles to right a wrong. And to do it at minimal cost.
I think that's a pretty good history lesson. They're going to look at that 100 years from now and say, wow, if they could come together and do the right thing, maybe we can too. Wasn't that delicious?
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The Wells Fargo Active Cash Credit Card. Visit wellsfargo.com/slash active cash. Terms apply. He's heir to one of the most storied family dynasties in American politics, now taking his first steps into the spotlight. Mo Raka catches up with Jack Schlossberg.
We are honored to have Jack, the grandson of John F. Kennedy. Yes. Thank you for being here, Jack. For Jack Schlossberg, it can seem like his grandfather still gets top billing.
Was your father or your grandfather? Yeah. John Kennedy? I am five. But the 33-year-old grandson of the late President of the United States, is out to make a name for himself.
Hey, what's going on? Good to meet you, sir. What's up? I'm Jack. John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg is running for Congress in New York's 12th District.
Hey, how are you? I'm Jack. Nice to meet you. For those people out there who might go, oh man, not another Kennedy. Come on.
People can think whatever they like, but I'm me, I'm Jack Schlossberg, and I'm proud of where I come from, but that's not the only thing about me. I'm my own person, so you can count on me to think for myself. That may be, but he's also inescapably a member of a family with the longest-running storyline in American politics. In just the last year, Robert F. Kennedy, Junior, a long time vaccine skeptic, joined the Trump cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Many of his own family members publicly rebuked him. My cousin RFK Jr., who tries to pretend that he embodies a progressive agenda when he's, in fact, using his last name and lending it to. President Trump, who is dismantling everything my family stood for. I know that you will have the united support of all Americans. The Trump administration hasn't just targeted programs championed by JFK and his late brothers Robert Sr.
and Teddy. President Trump also declassified files related to JFK's assassination. Then added his own name to the Kennedy Center before announcing it will close, he says for renovation. that name to the Trump Kennedy Center. is not going to last.
Do you think that Trump is going to have it raised to the ground? I think he could easily demolish it. He's trying to kill JFK. JFK will never die because he's kept alive by the people who are fighting, organizing, and rising up now to remove Trump from power. Newsflash, Republicans are lying.
Fighting words from someone who's amassed an army of 2 million followers on social media. I've been following you on Instagram since I was like 15. Thank you. With some posts that are plain old silly. Ta-da-da-da-da-da.
True. And others that seek to educate and are positively wonky.
So. S R D Salt capper peel. Fix It Now Caucus. And still others that have been more polarizing. A lot of people talk.
Okay, this and I'm gonna leave They say I do these accents. I'm making fun of people, making fun of working people. Not my intention, no disrespect whatsoever. You need to be aggressive right now to get your message through.
Some of it's very funny, but I'll tell you one that made me wince.
Okay. It's about Vice President J.D. Vance's wife, Usha Vance, specifically the one where you superimposed your face on one of her kids, the joke being that you and she had a love child.
Now, she's not elected. Is that crossing a line? I think what's crossing a line is the propaganda that we see issued every single day by the White House and Vance.
Well, we know you think that. Right.
So, what are we going to do? Hold back? Hold back on our sense of humor and not tease them, make fun of them back?
So, is there a line? The line has been, first of all, I don't think anyone was seriously thinking that I meant that we did actually have a love child. You can point at anything I posted. I will point you back at a president who shares pictures of himself bombing US citizens with fecal matter. This is a new era we're living in.
It's time, he says, for Democrats to take the gloves off. You know what they're doing in New York? They're cutting off the funding that supports all the infrastructure for this city. They're making New York and other blue states pay more just because they don't like us. And what?
I'm not supposed to make fun of J.D. Vance and his family? Why? For Schlossberg, politics is personal. My grandmother wasn't elected.
My uncle John wasn't elected. People feel absolute free reign to say whatever they want about them.
So I'm gonna throw it right back at you because you know what? The time is not now to hold back. Sit on your hands and say, hmm, okay, well, why don't we just play it safe? Absolutely not. We gotta get these people out of here.
I don't want to make any assumptions here, but there are about a dozen candidates running for the Democratic nomination. Who are you backing? Yeah. Yeah. Jack for New York 12.
Believe in something again. My son. Jack Schlossberg calls one of America's most prominent Democrats, who's also his mother, Caroline Kennedy, and his father, artist Ed Schlossberg, his most trusted advisers. He's willing to take the consequences of what people think, and we need people who can reach a new generation. We're not doing it with just boring talking points.
And so he has been able to connect with people. He's been able to show that he thinks for himself. He doesn't have a formal campaign organization. He doesn't have a campaign manager. Is that wise?
Well, I really trust Jack. I trust his judgment. I mean, some of the other people have been preparing for this for. Years and years, but he came to this new. I mean, he's the outsider in this race, actually.
Which is ironic. Yeah, ironic. And I think, you know, people might laugh when they hear that, but it's actually true. This is where I lie down in bed at night and I can look at my plans. An outsider with the education of an insider.
Jack's tariff plan, lower the cost of food and clothes, the housing plan. Schlossberg has a degree in history from Yale, as well as a law degree and an MBA from Harvard. With that education, he could do a lot of things. He doesn't have to run for office. Yeah, I think he'd be great at this though.
I mean we need people with that kind of education and we need people who are really informed and bring a set of values and have the courage to speak up. And I think Jack does all of those things. And a sense of humor. Yes. While Jack was growing up, his parents did their best to keep him out of the spotlight.
You know, your first communion was on the cover, the front page of the New York Daily News. You should have been there. It was an amazing event. That sense of humor has helped him through some challenging periods. There was a debilitating back injury in his 20s.
I blew out my back and my hip, and I had to get my whole hip reconstructed with two different surgeries, and I couldn't really walk for about four years. At the same time, In the metaphorical sense, strong backbone. You're fine like a ramrod. For his family, which also includes older sisters Tatiana and Rose, Jack has been something of a cheerleader in chief. We've been through a lot of really difficult periods in our life, and he's always there to lift it up and remember where we are and we're still here.
My name is Jack Schlossberg, and I'm running for Congress. Schlossberg announced his candidacy this past November, just one month before his sister Tatiana died at 35. She described her battle with cancer in an essay in the New Yorker magazine. How did your sister feel about your candidacy? I can tell you now that she's still rooting for us and that the last thing that she said to me was, You better win.
No one knew me better, and I knew no one better than her. What is it like growing up with two older sisters? It's brutal. Absolutely brutal. They don't let you get away with anything.
My style is never good enough. I've never gotten an answer right in my entire life. But in all honesty, they taught me everything I know on how to be a strong person. And It's also made me more conscientious and aware of my own privilege and position as a man in a world that often rewards certain types of behavior and certain people. This is a picture of me and Tatiana, my sister.
My late sister? us as kids, um, and then at her wedding In his small New York City apartment, he keeps images of Tatiana at his bedside. Her wedding was in Martha's Vineyard at my family's house, my grandmother's house there. And uh Yeah, it was awesome. And her husband, George, is awesome.
Campaigning is one of the few things that can pull him away from Tatiana's two young children. What kind of an uncle are you? The best one? And when a baby's crying, it's because they're tired, hungry, or sick. Yes.
Is there a fourth one? Or they miss Uncle Jack? A lot of people don't know about that one. Jack Schlossberg's family, and particularly his memories of Tatiana. At once cheer him up.
and spur him on. We're a really close family. For me, when you talk about the Kennedy family, it's a lot of people I don't know. When you talk about what family is, it's me, my sisters. My parents.
We're a unit and we're really close. Because, you know, when they say the Kennedy family, you think of those photos with like a cast of thousands. Yeah. And you guys usually aren't in those photos. Yeah, we're not really in those photos.
You know? That's a lot of um I mean I don't want to It's all good, but, you know, family's complicated. America has lost a music legend. On Friday we learned of the death of Neil Sadaka. From David Pogue, appreciation.
Yeah. Don't take Yo. Neil Sadaka was one of America's most popular singer-songwriters. twice. As a boy growing up in Brooklyn, his talent was hard to miss.
I was a child prodigy. I started at nine years old, got a scholarship to the Prep School of Juilliard. When he was thirteen, he met a kid in his apartment building named Howard Greenfield. He'd found his lyricist, and they quickly hit it big. Oh, Carol, I am but a fool.
Did I hear a rumor that that song was based on a relationship you had with your then-girlfriend? I did date Carol King for about two minutes. Yeah. Yes, I had a crush on Carol King. In the next few years, Sadaka composed and performed one hit teen anthem after another.
I don't know better. Stupid Cupid, you're a real mean guy. Is there a through line to what makes stuff popular? It always goes back to, oh, that song could be my life. That that's my story.
He landed his first number one single in 1962. Neil Sadaka had become a superstar. I pushed three buttons on my car radio and I heard O'Carroll on three stations at the same time. And then suddenly, it was over. In 1963, a new group came out.
They were called the Beatles. Sadaka's brand of bouncy pop quickly fell out of favor. He'd become a has-been at age 24. For thirteen years he was mostly forgotten. I had thirteen years of being off the chart, no plays, nothing.
And then, one night at a party in England, he met a fellow musician named Elton John. He said, you know, I could make you a star again. In 1974, Elton John's record company released a new album called Sedaka's Back. That record included his first number one hit in 12 years. Oh, I hear laughter.
But even that song wasn't as big a hit as this one. Recorded by Captain Antoniel. Heart and love, give us a kill. I went from making. $50,000 a year in 1974 to $6 million a year in 1975.
like one record one LP and one song. The second act of Sadaka's career had begun. If you had any doubt, you just had to listen closely. In nineteen seventy six. A new, slower version of Breaking Up is Hard to Do hit the charts again.
Then I'll be blue Breaking up. It's hard to do. On Friday, after a 70-year career, Neil Sadaka died at age 86. Yeah. To him, making a song was a joyful, even mystical act.
I think you're. chosen Spiritually, at that particular moment, and you better sit very quietly. Because You can actually feel the song being written by itself, and the song passes through your. Through your throat and through your fingers. It's an extraordinary feeling.
He's the bold, brash impresario of modern combat sports. Dana White leads a movement that for many is a cultural phenomenon. If baseball is America's pastime, And football is its obsession, then the ultimate fighting championship might be its guilty pleasure. Just don't say that to Dana White. The punches, the kicks.
The slams. Man, those kicks. People don't understand how bad those leg kicks hurt. As CEO and president of the UFC, no one on earth has done more to grow the sport than White, who took the league from obscurity to what will be its highest profile moment this summer, a UFC match on the south lawn of the White House. Everyone's asking me for tickets.
They're going to have the greatest champions in the world fighting that night. Billed as a celebration of America's 250th on June 14th. It also happens to be... The birthday of President Donald Trump. That one's signed by all three of the Beastie Boys.
From the UFC's Las Vegas headquarters, so this piece of art represents war. Dana White inhabits and presides over an empire of testosterone. That's a real saber-toothed tiger skull. Whoa. But it wasn't always like this.
And a no-holds-bar combat. In its early days, the UFC was so violent, with almost no rules, that it was effectively exiled to pay per view. As a kid who was interested in UFC, the draw of it, at least for me and my friends, was like, oh. Keith Hackney is just wailing on Joe's son's private parts, and this is allowable.
Well, you're right. That is exactly what drew everybody to it. But then regulators went after him. UFC was on the brink of bankruptcy when White and two of his high school buddies bought the league for $2 million. UFC.
Locked. And loaded. And this is where something happened that no one at the time could have understood the impact of. When the UFC desperately needed someone to host its fights, then casino owner Donald Trump was game. The most monumental night in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Trump showed up for the first fight of the night and stayed till the last fight of the night. From then on out, anything that ever happened, he was always the first guy to reach out and say, congratulations, I knew you guys were going to do it. To hear White tell it, that business relationship turned into a friendship, which turned into White helping Trump get elected. I'm in the tough guy business, and this man is the toughest, most resilient human being that I've ever met in my life. White even urged Trump to appear on influential so-called Manosphere podcasts leading up to the 2024 election.
You're not a Kamala person. You're a Khabib person, but you're not a Kamala person. I felt like all the people that are on Fox are voting for him anyway, right? Donald Trump is the guy's guy, and I knew that the younger generation could relate to Donald Trump. Dana White, he's that tough guy.
Some even think these appearances helped swing the election for Trump. Nobody's done a better job in. Sports. The job White did was making UFC mainstream. Do you want to be a fighter?
That started with more rules and safety measures. I will tell you, the sound of bodies hitting bodies from this close-up is not something I think I've heard before in that way.
So true. When a guy just gets absolutely knocked out cold and you see his head hit the mat, what goes through your mind as the president of this whole field? Yeah, health and safety is very important to us. We have a A perfect 30-year record. In 2016, UFC sold for $4 billion.
And this past August, CBS's owner, Paramount Skydance, agreed to pay nearly $8 billion to stream UFC on Paramount Plus. as well as on broadcast television. The first CBS fight airs next Saturday night. Tell me about this. Yeah, so this is the war room.
This is where we have all our matchmaking meetings. But two months before that deal, we were with Dana White for a busy few days leading up to a weekend UFC title fight. It's not good when you're late to your own press conference. First came some Thursday promotion. I'm the best fighter in the world.
I'm going to knock him out in the first round. Then Friday afternoon weigh-ins. Fifty. The headliners can make millions, but fighter pay remains a contentious topic. In 2024, UFC settled a class action lawsuit alleging underpayment.
By Friday night, it was time for White's other combat franchise, the newly formed Power Slap. Which is. exactly what it sounds like. You have to be able to slap hard and you have to have a good chin to be good in this. I saw the opportunity, just like the UFC, and I said.
I get this. And I think I can actually make this big. The night wasn't over yet. This is Vegas after all.
So we followed White to the high-stakes baccarat room. Buying in for $1 million. That's gamble. Come on. And on this night, things went well for Dana White.
So does winning $1.2 million in 15 minutes put you in a good mood for tomorrow? It definitely doesn't suck. The gambling, the parties, the combative rhetoric. How come it's always like a finger? It's a larger-than-life image, but a controversial one.
Notably in 2023, when an altercation with his wife at a nightclub in Mexico was caught on camera. What happened that night, as far as you can assess? Yeah, I mean, I don't blame alcohol. It didn't jump down my throat, you know. It was one of those things that never should have happened that did.
On the world stage, you know, it's just something that we had to deal with as a family and. We did and We moved on. I think for a lot of folks, the natural question that comes to mind is: well, is that who the guy really is? 100%. 100%.
When you go through something like that. You wake up the next day and you gotta look in the mirror and say, how did that happen? And how do we make sure that never happens again? UFC fans. seem unphased.
I love seeing dudes get knocked out. It's my favorite thing in the world. When we visited, they were lining up in the Las Vegas summer sun for UFC X. A chance to marinate in all things, ultimate fighting. Finally, it was Saturday night and time for the main event.
Is that a Superman place? Yes, exactly. Look at you, huh? The title fight was a brief and bloody affair. that left the crowd buzzing.
Out goal. Dana White crowned a new champ. But his mind was already on his upcoming vacation. After the fight, flying to my place, I got a place up in Maine. With one stop planned on the calendar.
Dinner at the White House. With his old pal. The President. Particularly as it pertains to pro-sports leagues, I would think. The idea would be try not to be overtly political.
Because then you might lose half of your fan base or try to really kind of stay down the middle. How about you be authentic and just be yourself? How about that? Just be authentic. You don't have to agree with me and you don't have to like it and I don't have to agree with you, but we can all still just get along.
I mean, that's how this is supposed to work. You may not know the name, but Mark Shaman has written songs for some of the most popular shows and movies, like Hairspray, to name just one. With Tracy Smith, we meet the man behind the music. Uh There's a line from an old movie that says, no man is a failure who has friends. We do have mics here for anyone who'd like to get on a mic.
And by that reasoning, meet the most successful man in town. Mark Shaman, legendary composer, Tony Grammy and Emmy winner, and a guy with friends who'd brave a New York snowstorm to see him. Nathan Lane. He's just a very, very dear friend of many years. Matthew Broderick.
Just a very clever guy to know. Steve Martin. Been on vacation with him. I've hung out with him. He's written songs that I've done.
And he's just a great, great guy.
Now you could not meet more with the failure, is your belief. And our love is me. This event, held a few weeks ago at the legendary New York restaurant Sardis, was a book party for Shaman's new memoir, Never Mind the Happy. And with close to 50 years in the business, he's had a few things to be happy about. For starters, Mark Shaman has scored some of the best-loved films of a generation and scored seven Oscar nominations along the way.
One of them for the music from the movie version of South Park. He was the young news theme writer from the 1987 film Broadcast News. That's him on the right. He wrote the music for the hit musical Hairspray and won a Tony along with his writing partner and former life partner Scott Whitman. And back at Sardis, it seems everyone in the room had a favorite Mark Shaman song.
Lynn Manuel Miranda. I loved Mark before I ever knew him because I was the species of theater kid that memorized Billy Crystal's. Musical montages on the Oscars. And many years later, I learned that Mark wrote those with Billy. It's a wonderful night for Oscar.
Oscar, Oscar. Who will win? Who will win? It's the Oscars.
So kick off your shoes. As the creator of some of the most memorable music on stage and screen, It's no surprise that Mark Shaman is most at home behind a piano. I love a piano. I love that we have a piano here. It is, it's truly part of my.
body and heart and soul. It really is. Always has been. Do you feel differently sitting at the piano than you do in other parts of your life? I feel at home here.
Yeah, and on stage, I'm a ham. I feel more at home on stage. than really anywhere. Seems he's always felt that way. Born 66 years ago in New Jersey, Mark Shaman was a piano prodigy who left home at 16, bound for the big city.
And my mother said that people were telling her, What do you mean you're letting him move to New York? But she said, What am I going to do? Chain him to the piano? Did you ever? After a few years playing in New York clubs, he became the music director for one of his idols, the legendary Bette Midler.
Yeah, climb, climb, clang on the truck. And I Before getting a job at Saturday Night Live, I got to co-create the Sweeney Sisters, which were two lounge-singing girls who did long medleys, talk about cheesy show business. That's him on the piano. He also met people there who'd become lifelong friends, like Martin Short and Billy Crystal. That was what Saturn Live gave me, those friendships.
And then Billy Crystal is the one who introduced me to Rob Reiner. What was it like working with Rob Reiner? Working with Rob was just the greatest. Billy asked him on when Harry met Sally, what are you thinking about for the music? And Rob said, I need a guy who like knows every song in the American Songbook.
And Billy mensched that he is said, have I got a guy for you? What if they don't want to have sex with you? Doesn't matter, because the sex thing is already out there, so the friendship is ultimately doomed, and that is the end of the story. The finished film was a hit, in part because of Shaman's musical arrangements. And Rob Reiner asks Shaman to score his next project, the 1990 thriller Misery, even though that was uncharted territory for Shaman.
I guess it was kind of a miracle you finding me. Yeah. No, it wasn't a miracle at all. In a way I was following you. Even my own agent said, Rob, what makes you think Mark can do this?
And Rob said, Richard? Talent is talent. I had to live up to his faith in me. Mark Shaman went on to score more than a dozen of Rob Reiner's films, a golden Hollywood winning streak that might have continued until the unthinkable happened in December when Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were murdered in their home. Can you even describe getting that phone call?
Mm. Yeah, it was Billy Crystal who texted me, call me. and I could just sense through the two words Something's not right. And I called him and he told me what had happened and I was in shock and I'm really still in shock. I could play you something uh if might I play you from the American President.
Yeah. This is one of the scores Mark Shaman is most proud of for 1995's The American President. Rob Reiner made a film that was poignant and inspiring. and Shaman's music captures not only the spirit of the film, but of the dear friend who made it. We can just take a minute.
I just can't believe it. Shaman says it's been a rough couple of months, but he's working through it. Yeah. He calls himself a cynic, but he has an equally clear sense of just how lucky he's been. If tears were only calories, just think how thin I'd be.
If suffering was a sailboat You would find me out to see. You know, the book's called Nevermind the Happy. What does make you happy now? There's a lot to be happy about. It's the way people kept saying, Mark, don't give up.
And it's true. And I've just had this endless amount of dreams coming true. I am proof that if you just keep showing up, keep saying yes. That Everything you could have ever dreamt of can happen. Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, found itself at odds with the Pentagon this past week over use of its technology.
Here's Joling Kent. Dario Amadei is at the center of a new kind of firestorm. It's about the principle of standing up for what's right. What's wrong, in his view, is why his AI company, Anthropic, has been banned from the federal government. It feels very punitive and inappropriate, given the amount that we've done for U.S.
national security. Anthropic created Claud, an AI chat bot you might use at work or school. Since last summer, its government version has been deeply embedded in military intelligence and classified operations at the Pentagon. This past week, in the lead up to the attack on Iran, the Defense Department demanded Anthropic hand over its AI without restrictions for lawful military use. The company refused.
We have these two red lines. We've had them from day one. We are still advocating for those red lines. We're not going to move on those red lines. Those red lines not allowing Anthropic's AI to perform mass surveillance of Americans and prohibit its AI from powering fully autonomous weapons without any human involvement.
It doesn't show the judgment that a human soldier would show. Friendly fire or shooting a civilian or just the wrong kind of things. We don't want to sell something that we don't think is reliable and we don't want to sell something that could get our own people killed or that could get innocent people killed. It's a question of who should control the most advanced technology ever created, a private tech company or the federal government. Do you think that Anthropic knows better than the Pentagon here?
One of the things about a free market and free enterprise is different folks can provide different products under different principles. Our model has a personality. It's capable of certain things. It's able to do certain things reliably. It's able to not do certain things reliably.
And I think we are a good judge of what our models can do reliably and what they cannot do reliably. After several days of talks, President Trump on Friday directed the U.S. government to halt all use of Anthropics AI, canceling more than $200 million in federal contracts. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled it a supply chain risk to national security, a first for an American company. President Trump has called Anthropic a left-wing woke company.
Is this decision at all driven by ideology? Look, I can't speak for what. You know, I can't speak for what other parties are doing and what they're doing. But you, and you're in Anthropic. Yeah, look, we, we, but we.
We, I think, have tried to be very neutral.
So, this idea that we've somehow been partisan or that we haven't been even-handed, we've been studiously even-handed. Critics call this an abuse of power, what the Pentagon is doing and what the White House is doing. Do you believe this is an abuse of power? You know, again, I would return to the idea that this is unprecedented. But is it an abuse of power?
You know, this has never happened before. This designation has never happened before with an American company. And I think it was made very clear in some of their statements, in some of their language, that this was retaliatory and punitive. I don't know what else to call it. Retaliatory and punitive.
As Amade and Anthropic face a government ban, his main rival, Sam Altman of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, struck his own deal with the Pentagon on Friday. Amadei says Anthropic plans to take legal action. All we've seen are tweets from the President and tweets from Secretary Hagseth. And he says, Anthropic remains at the negotiating table, hoping to talk. If you had a moment with the president right now, what would you say to him?
We are patriotic Americans. We have done everything we have done has been for the sake of this country. for the sake of supporting US national security. We believe in defeating our autocratic adversaries. We believe in defending America.
The red lines we have drawn, we drew because we believe that crossing those red lines is contrary to American values. Disagreeing with the government is the most American thing in the world. And we are patriots. In everything we have done here, we have stood up for the values of this country. We're saying so long to a member of the family this morning.
Producer Mary Walsh has been with CBS News for nearly five decades. She's worked with correspondent David Martin for 33 of those years. In fact, this morning's report on the new Desert Storm Memorial in Washington was from Mary and David. Saying goodbye to Mary is a tall order for us. She's been there, done that, truly all over the world.
War zones. presidential campaigns, stories large and small, with one thing in common. Excellence. Suffice it to say, we're grateful. We'll miss her.
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