CBS Sunday Morning

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Visit trex.com to order samples. Good morning. I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday Morning. In a political era marked by bitter partisanship, one American family is leading the way toward encouraging the best from people in public life. They do it through an award honoring the memory and the words of a former president. Martha Teichner will report our cover story.

Named for John F. Kennedy's famous book. For 30 years, Caroline Kennedy has been presenting the Profile in Courage Award to public figures willing to risk their careers to do what they think is right. When you give the awards, how does it feel?

Well, it's like meeting a hero. We've been given the privilege of revealing this year's winner ahead this Sunday morning. Our Sunday profile Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke.

Tracy Smith does the honors. Her characters spent seven seasons on an epic conquering spree. So how does Emilia Clarke entertain herself? Have you ever watched any television show as intensely as people watch Game of Thrones?

Friends. The unexpected from Game of Thrones royalty Emilia Clarke ahead on Sunday morning. Maraca takes a closer look this morning at the era of reconstruction that followed the Civil War, a period that's been widely misunderstood for roughly a century and a half. Ask people when the first African American was elected to Congress and they might guess the 1960s. And they would never guess it was Hiram Revels from Mississippi.

He takes office in February of 1870. It's the first time in this country or really anywhere that an interracial democracy was created. Later on Sunday morning, Revels was born for you in North Carolina. The pioneering black congressman of reconstruction. Who's the boss of the Los Angeles Clippers? Same fellow who used to be the boss at Microsoft. He'll talk with Rita Braver.

Where do you want to go today? After more than three decades helping lead Microsoft, Steve Ballmer retired as one of the richest men in the world. The magazines say this guy has 41 billion dollars. I cannot fathom that. I can't. No, in in a sense you have to say what does it mean? We'll find out what it means later on Sunday morning. Tony DeCopel has questions for actor Sam Rockwell. Steve Hartman tells us about an act of childhood kindness.

And more all coming up when our Sunday morning podcast continues. For 30 years now, the Profile in Courage Award has been leading the way, honoring people taking the high road. With Martha Teichner, we're about to find out this year's winner in our Sunday morning cover story. John F. Kennedy in front of PT-109, the famous World War II snapshot that doesn't tell the story of how JFK, the war hero, saved the life of a fellow crew member. In American folklore, the good man always wins. The courageous man comes up. In 1956, as a young senator, Kennedy published Profiles in Courage about some of his own heroes, eight U.S. senators who did what they thought was right, not what was popular.

Somebody who's willing to go against the wishes of his constituents for what he considers the best interests of the country. Even if it destroyed their political careers. In 1989, our family was thinking about how to memorialize him and we decided to do it by honoring the quality that he thought was most essential in public life, which was courage. Since then, every year, the Profile in Courage Award has been given for an act or a lifetime of political courage. Party, not an issue. Caroline Kennedy makes the presentation.

Now joined by her son, Jack Schlossberg. Civic involvement is your inherited legacy in so many ways. To think that I inherited a legacy of public service just based on the fact that mine related to public servants would be to misunderstand what they stood for.

So I think everyone inherits a legacy of public service just based on the men and women who have served before them and have made our country what it is today. We wanted something that would be both symbolic and beautiful. It's silver and heavy and made to look like a ship's lantern. Hopefully the symbolism of the lantern will also help us all go forward following our courageous leader. What does it say? That's a quote from the book.

In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifice he faces if he follows his conscience, each man, I think he meant man or woman, must decide for himself the course he will follow. Elected mayor of New Orleans in 2010, five years after Hurricane Katrina, Mitch Landrieu inherited a city still ravaged by the storm. I would tell the people of New Orleans, look, if we're going to come back, you have to sacrifice.

This is going to hurt. On his watch, the city was rebuilt. New hospitals, new schools, new schools, a new airport, a massive new flood protection system. But it was something much riskier politically that won Landrieu last year's Profile in Courage Award. Something suggested to him by his friends since childhood, trumpeter and New Orleans native, Wynton Marsalis. He said, look, you should take those monuments down. Marsalis was talking about the Confederate statues regarded as an affront by African Americans who represent more than 60 percent of the city's population. When he said that to me, really, it was like getting hit in the head with a bat. He waited, then chose his moment.

There is a difference, you see, between remembrance of history and the reverence of it. After white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine African Americans in a Charleston, South Carolina church, taking advantage of the national outrage, Landrieu announced that in New Orleans, the Confederate monuments would be removed. The blowback was immediate. Anybody who showed up to say they wanted to help started receiving awful telephone calls, death threats. The first contractor that showed up had a car firebombed. Did you have threats against you?

Constantly. It was very intense. But finally, by May 2017, after more than two years of legal wrangling, all four of the monuments had come down. I was really just doing what I thought was the right thing. And I just didn't want to walk away from it because I wanted to be able to live with myself. In his introduction to Profiles in Courage, JFK wrote, compromise need not mean cowardice, a surprising concept in today's climate of political divisiveness, along with bipartisanship. John McCain was given the award in conjunction with Russ Feingold for the bipartisan work that they did on campaign finance reform. In 1999, the Profile in Courage Award was given jointly to the two senators, Feingold, a Democrat and McCain, a Republican, together pushed to regulate special interest money in politics.

The two of them were so dedicated to and it was part of both their lives, but particularly my husband. It was the essence of who he was. Cindy McCain is John McCain's widow. Did he get criticized? Was he vilified? Oh, yeah.

Oh, gosh. Cindy McCain remembers it was Ted Kennedy who told her husband he had won the award. John and Ted were polar opposites politically.

They fought on the floor, swear words, I mean, complete knockdown dragon. And when it was over, Ted walked over to John, put his arm around him, said, wasn't that fun? The day of the ceremony was the McCain's son, Jimmy's birthday. So the Kennedys arranged for them all to arrive in style on a Coast Guard cutter. John always described it to our kids is this is kind of a beacon of light. So it was precious.

It was very precious. Yes, this was, I believe, the most special award to John ever. The Profile in Courage Award has been called the Nobel Prize for public figures.

The famous and not so famous have been picked. In 1997, Alabama Circuit Judge Charles Price was honored for making the very unpopular call that his fellow judge, Roy Moore, was violating the Constitution by displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. And in 2000, a kid from South Bend, Indiana, named Pete Buttigieg, won the Profile in Courage High School essay contest. He wrote about Bernie Sanders.

Now it looks like he's running against him for president. Look at this photograph of another teenager standing next to her idol, Senator John F. Kennedy. My father was the mayor of Baltimore, and there was a big dinner, black tie dinner, which Senator Kennedy was going to speak.

My mother and she said, if you want to go in my place to the dinner, please do. Yes, that's House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It's a very sweet picture. It's a great picture relating to the inspiration that President Kennedy was to my generation and those that followed. And yes, Nancy Pelosi is this year's winner of the Profile in Courage Award. In a statement, Caroline Kennedy calls her the most important woman in American political history. She is the first woman to be speaker. She's the first woman to be elected speaker in non-consecutive terms in over 60 years. So the courage that that takes really, I think, makes her an example and an inspiration for generations of Americans, men and women.

Coming from Caroline, that's an enormous compliment. However, going with it are shoulders for other people to stand on. I've stood on many women's shoulders who have paved the way for us, and now we have to pave the way for others.

So it's about the future. Please don't characterize the strength that I bring for this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats. Thin-skinned, she is not.

And with attacks coming at her, even from within her own party, there's a lesson there. You have to be ready to take a punch and you have to be ready to throw a punch. And I'm in the arena. And I know that when you're in the arena, this is what you should expect.

But if you don't have the courage, don't get in the arena. It's time America, time for Walter Winchell. And now a page from our Sunday morning almanac, April 7th, 1897, 122 years ago today, the day Walter Winchell was born in New York City. A tabloid columnist turned broadcaster, by the 1950s Winchell was a regular on TV. Mr. and Mrs. North and South American, all the ships at sea, let's go to press. Washington, D.C. With his staccato delivery, that telegraph sound and a trademark hat, Walter Winchell mixed breaking news.

Near Royce City, Texas, between San Antonio and St. Louis, several reported kills. Just happened. We may have more on it later. Next is Arthur Godfrey. With celebrity gossip.

Jack Dragnet Webb made a very big denial of Jack O'Brien's scoop that Webb would not next marry Dorothy Town of Hollywood. Alleged communist sympathizers were a favorite Winchell target. Fort Taunmouth, the McCarthy committee has summoned 20 present and former employees at this army base.

At least 10 of them will use the Fifth Amendment as alibi. Starting in 1959, Winchell served as narrator for the television classic, The Untouchables. On hand to watch the mobster leave was Elliot Ness, chief of the unique federal squad known as The Untouchables.

Walter Winchell died in 1972, at the age of 74. But as we well know, the celebrity gossip shows he helped pioneer live on. So listen, I got a lack of experience, problem in the polls, and you're one of us experienced guys around. You want to jump on board, be my vice? Let's go.

It's Sunday morning on CBS. And here again is Jane Pauley. Sam Rockwell played an affable George W. Bush opposite Christian Bail's Dick Cheney in last year's Oscar-nominated Vice.

He's about to step out in a very different role, but not before answering questions from our Tony DeCopel. Sam Rockwell's long acting career, like a toy chest, is full of cowboys trying to wear me down on this, outlaws, well don't keep going on about it, spacemen, and monsters. I feel like if you were to take every role you've ever been in and dump it out on the floor as action figures, it would be weird. It's a weird pile of stuff. Yeah, there's a lot of wigs and, you know, fake beards in there.

What the crap? But for Rockwell, none of it is child's play. I've gone to therapy, I have an acting coach, I have a dialect coach, I have a voice coach, you know, I don't do it alone, you know. Why are you so open about the work?

Not to be too pretentious about it, but there is a lot that goes into it, you know, you don't just show up. In fact, he's been disappearing into characters for so long, this is ridiculous, so completely, most well-guarded yeast factory I've ever seen. He was once about as unknown as he ever was in the movie, but it's not the most well-guarded yeast factory I've ever seen. He was once about as unknown as a celebrated actor can be. Now most of you probably know me as that guy from that movie, you know I'm talking about the main, not the main guy, but the other guy.

But last year, Rockwell took home his first Oscar. Don't I know your face from some place? I don't know, do you? For his role as a racist cop in the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. I could arrest you right now if I wanted to. For what? For emptying out your bucket there, that's that's against the being bad against the environment laws. I want you to be my VP.

This year he was nominated again for his portrayal of President George W. Bush in Vice. You're a kinetic leader. I am. People always said that. Yeah, yeah. Then you get that thing, you know, in your lip and you know.

You can't drop into it, there you go. Sometimes, but yeah, it's hard on your, hard on your mouth, the W. Yeah, a little. It gets in there, yeah. Okay, here we go Deanna.

And now at 50, he's reminding audiences that he's always had the moves for center stage. Some of the parlor tricks, yes, yes, yes. Let's see. Whoa. Yeah, a little hat trick. Whoa.

Yeah, that's fun. In a new FX series, Rockwell plays Bob Fosse. Everyone see what Gwen's doing with the arm?

Break the leg. A dancer and choreographer turned director. Famed for movies like Cabaret and all that jazz. What was it that drew you to him? I guess the charisma. There's a kind of cool guy thing about him and there's kind of a, he was a genius. Yet he was also really messed up, you know.

That's what we do though, isn't it? We take what hurts and we turn it into a big gag and we're singing and we're dancing. It was also a haunted quality. Very haunted, yeah. I guess I'm attracted to characters like that, you know.

It helps that Rockwell is also a dancer. It is fun. Sort of. Who taught you? You taught yourself? I just messed around. You know, I watched Risky Business.

That's how I learned how to do the splits. I watched Footloose and, you know, and I fancied myself a young Kevin Bacon probably, you know. Sam Rockwell grew up the only child of divorced parents.

He shuttled between San Francisco, where his father was a labor organizer, and New York, where his mom was a struggling actor. So what are you getting exposed to at that age? Well, you're backstage with people and it's a vaudeville existence, I guess you could say. What does that do to a kid? Well, it's good and bad. I think it makes you wiser and it also makes you a little strange. When you go back to the normal sort of middle-class life or working-class life when you're at school with kids who are having sort of a normal existence, you relate to them a little differently.

His first role was a 10-year-old Humphrey Bogart in a Casablanca sketch with his mother. I was thrilling. It was thrilling.

I got the bug, like, right away. And he dreamed big. What did you want to be? Like any other young actor you want to be, there's people go through phases. They want to be Robert De Niro. You know, I went through Robert De Niro phase. You want to be Chris Walken. You want to be Gene Hackman. You're on your own. That's fine by me, Al. Really. But as he grew into being Sam Rockwell, other actors started to notice. What kind of work?

What government agency? Problem-solving work. George Clooney once reportedly threw a golf club into a wall to get him into confessions of a dangerous mind. Yeah, I think that's true.

I think that's true. Brad Pitt showed up unannounced at Rockwell's house to recruit him for another role. Ding-dong.

Hey, I'm downstairs. It's Brad Pitt. Yeah, that's true. That happened. Yeah, yeah. Take him down.

The secret may be that he has always anchored his roles in research. Come on, defamation of character intercourse? To play a small-town cop in three billboards, what are you, an idiot? Don't call me an idiot. I don't want to be an idiot.

I don't want to be a small-town cop in three billboards. What are you, an idiot? Don't call me an idiot, Dixon. I didn't call you an idiot. I asked if he was an idiot.

That was a question. He got you there, sir. He actually hired a small-town cop to read the script and spend some time with him.

I wanted to get it right, and it was helpful, you know, just little details like their haircut, you know, and then just the way their demeanor and how they handle themselves. Sam Rockwell. After more than 70 films and dozens of television shows, Sam Rockwell is savoring the life he's built, including at home with longtime girlfriend, actor Leslie Bibb. Certainly in the love department, I'm very lucky, and in the work department, I am so screwed. These days, having luck means pouring everything into his starring turn as Bob Fosse. Where'd you learn that? I was dancing burlesque houses when I was 14. While also considering new possibilities.

I was 13. Does it occur to you, as it occurs to me, that in the same way you're name-checking these different great actors, there are actors coming up today who are going to be like, oh, you know, I just grew up watching Sam Rockwell. I just want to be like Sam Rockwell.

Well, that would be a beautiful thing, and that would make my heart soar like a hawk. So who is the boss who retired from Microsoft with a nest egg worth billions? Rita Braver has the answer. The magazines say this guy has 41 billion dollars.

That's what the magazines say. I cannot fathom that. I think most people can't. I can't. No, in a sense, you have to say, what does it mean?

What does it mean to my life style? I could buy the L.A. Clippers. And so Steve Ballmer, who at age 63 ranks as one of the wealthiest people in the world, did just that. So where are we headed? We're going to head to, our guys are warming up down there.

We'll watch our guys warm up. In 2014, Ballmer paid two billion dollars for this franchise. He's always loved basketball.

Way to go! And is now the team's most enthusiastic fan. Work, defense, work! Let's go, Trez!

Let's go, Trez! Though they've yet to win a championship. In fact, when most people think L.A. basketball, the Clippers is not the team that comes to mind. Why would someone who lives in L.A. choose to come to a Clippers game versus the Lakers game if they had the chance? Well, I think our team plays with a lot of grit, a lot of excitement, a lot of toughness, hardcore. And swimming against the stream idea?

Yeah, exactly. Ballmer is used to swimming against the stream. He grew up in Detroit in a middle-class family.

His dad, a Swiss immigrant who never finished high school. Steve Ballmer took a risk in 1980 and dropped out of business school to help an old friend from Harvard undergrad with his fledgling software company. Microsoft. The friend, of course, was Bill Gates. Did you have in the back of your mind that Microsoft was going to be this gigantic success? No, not really. I wanted to have some responsibility, which I did.

That was great. I wanted to work in a business that seemed to be rapidly changing because I have a little bit of ADD, if you will, in my personality. And I wanted to work for somebody who I believed was really smart and Bill was the smartest guy I had met. Steve Ballmer became Microsoft's 30th employee, put in charge of sales and business development.

Where do you want to go today? Because Microsoft software can really help you get there. While Gates and co-founder Paul Allen worked on creating software, Ballmer struck a shrewd deal that ultimately gave him almost 8% of the company. And at least in the early years, there was plenty of sparring among the big three, Gates, Allen, and Ballmer. There was a lot of pounding and shouting, as well as some cold shoulder, but make no mistake about it, none of the three of us was above a little bit of shouting.

Now remember, remember, we're 24, 25, 26 years old. It was a heady time, the dawn of the personal computer era, as Microsoft morphed into a behemoth, launching revolutionary operating systems like Windows 95. In 2000, Gates named Ballmer to replace him as CEO, and Ballmer's high-spirited antics at company meetings are still legendary. Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers. As CEO, Ballmer helped make Microsoft one of the leaders in selling software systems to large corporations, but he acknowledges he was late in steering Microsoft into the search and smartphone markets. Steve Ballmer retired in 2014, leaving in his own distinctive way.

You've made this the time of my life. But figuring out what to do after Microsoft was not so easy for Ballmer. I went a little manic. I played 100 rounds of golf, as crazy as that. I was good, too, at that time.

But I was manic. And then after a year, it's sort of, okay, breathe. And then after a year, it's sort of, okay, breathe.

And then after a year, it's sort of, okay, breathe. And that's when I really took back control of my time. And that is a luxury. Time is a prime commodity for Ballmer, who for years has been keeping spreadsheets to track how he spends every minute from 9 to 5. It's a budget of my time.

It shows the number of hours a year I want to spend, 366 hours in the year on the Clippers. But it was his wife of 29 years, Connie Ballmer, who thought he should start spending his spare time on more than basketball. She'd been directing the couple's philanthropy. They are ranked among the top Americans in charitable giving. Their contributions aimed primarily at helping kids in need get a better chance in life. So Steve said, he was being a little controversial, he said, philanthropy, why do we need to do philanthropy?

Why don't we let the government just give away the money and take care of these people? Even though you've been doing it all along. I said, really? And of course I challenged that, which got him thinking, hey, I wonder what the government spends its money on.

I'm going to find out. And when he couldn't find out, immediately. That's where the idea of USA Facts was born. Access to information is key to understand what's really driving the direction of our country. That's right, USA Facts, a free, non-partisan website that's trying to provide one-stop access to all government data. Any number that the government collects, you're trying to put it at our fingertips.

Exactly. Finances? We'll give you finances. Where all the money comes from, how much we have. You want to see what the population looks like that we're serving.

Demographics, family, population. Launched just two years ago and headquartered outside Seattle near Ballmer's home, he has poured about $30 million into USA Facts so far. In 1980, we spent just under $3,000 per person on health care as a society. Today, we're spending just under $10,000 per person. Inflation adjusted, we're spending over three times as much. And you can see how the proportion of people in each state have changed over the years. Ballmer hired a team of young computer hotshots to help mine the information.

And he hired Poppy McDonald to lead the effort to get data from every federal, state, and local agency. So do you just say, call up the IRS and say, okay, can you tell us how much you brought in last year in taxes and where it came from? We do. And the IRS sends us data on CD. They send it on, they don't like email it? No, no. You can't give it on CD?

On CD. But USA Facts analyzed those CDs to create graphics showing how earnings have changed over the years. They also chart how much different income groups pay in taxes. You're obviously in the top 1% of the top 1%. Do you feel like people at that level are paying enough taxes? I am nonpartisan.

Right. If somebody asked me about me, about me personally, do I feel like I have obligation to give back to society, I'd say yes. Society has to decide on policy.

If the policy is let's tax the more affluent people more, okay, I'm good with it. Homer says USA Facts can help Americans determine what policies they favor on controversial topics like immigration. How many undocumented immigrants does the government think we have in the country? In 2005, that was 10.5 million. Today, that's 12 million. Some people will say that's a huge increase. Some people will say, hmm, smaller than I might have thought. But how to respond when politicians assert they have better facts than the ones the government provides?

If you think any politician is using numbers that aren't accurate, boom, call them out. As for Steve Ballmer, he has a personal interest in the number one. Are there some big things you still want to do? The only thing I can really, really, really point to that I'd like to do but haven't done is be in a parade with an NBA championship.

I want to make progress on everything else, but to hold that trophy and have it be yours, yeah, yeah, that'd be on my list. Steve Hartman shows us how good things happen when kids follow the crowd. How do kids behave when no grownups are around?

Danette Mabes of South Brunswick, New Jersey, says you never really know. Because you're not watching them at that moment and at that time. She had always just assumed her son was good. Right. Until recently, when 13-year-old Gavin Mabes got caught on tape showing his true character.

Oh, my God. Gavin and some middle school friends had just arrived at a skate park. The park was empty except for little Carter Brunel, who was here with his mother celebrating his fifth birthday.

Carter is autistic. Big groups of older kids can make him nervous, so his mom, Kristin, was fully prepared to get him out of there. She just wasn't prepared for what happened next.

I don't know. They've really just shocked me. It was unlike any experience I think I've ever had. You know how middle school kids sometimes operate like they're in a pack? Well, that's pretty much what happened here. Gavin led the way and the others followed. The only surprise was that Gavin didn't start trouble. He started a friendship.

This kid's already better than me. Gavin's just going around with him and making him feel special. And the rest of his friends kind of followed suit and then started singing happy birthday to him. Happy birthday to you. That really blew me away.

Because you just want to see the kindness in the world. And I wanted Carter to have a good birthday. It was such a great birthday and such a kind deed, even the local police department responded. And we're going to throw you guys a pizza party next week over at school. But here's the best part. Since their first meeting, Gavin and the middle schoolers have continued to go out of their way to play with Carter.

How you doing? He was just so happy and he made us all happy. So fun to be around. He's rad. And as for the moms, for them, this was a moment of parenting utopia.

Where the only thing better than seeing your kid treated kindly is knowing that your kid is treating others kindly, even when you're not watching. That was so cool. I was just so proud of him.

You want to race? He's good. You did it right. Thank you. Game of Thrones is about to return for its final season with actress Emilia Clarke front and center.

Tracy Smith explains how Clarke is a survivor in more ways than one in our Sunday profile. Shall we begin? Do we have a plan? I will crucify the masters.

I will set their fleets of fire, kill every last one of their soldiers and return their cities to the dirt. Spend any time with Emilia Clarke and it's easy to see that she's not like the character she plays on TV. What's the big difference between you and Danny? The big difference between me and Danny?

My sense of humor in that I have one. I mean that lady ain't cracking jokes. You stand in the presence of Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, rightful heir to the Iron Throne, rightful queen of the Andals and the First Men. Danny, Daenerys Targaryen, Khaleesi, she of so very many names, commands an air force of dragons, walks through fire and is a serious contender to win the Game of Thrones. We obviously didn't communicate clearly.

We're here to discuss your surrender, not mine. As you may know, Game of Thrones, which begins its final season next week on HBO, is the biggest TV show on earth. It's famous for killing off its lead characters, but so far, Clarke has survived. Even though you are one of the obviously most powerful characters in the show, I don't think audiences would be surprised if they killed you. Well, this is the incredible writing, the incredible storytelling on the show and in that way that life can be shocking and frightening and confusing, the show doesn't shy away from that for the sake of storytelling. It embraces that uncertainty and that kind of, and I think that's part of the addiction that people can get with this show where you just, you don't know what's going to happen next because anything can happen.

They proved it time and time again. So without giving anything away, when you read that final script, what happens to Daenerys, what was your reaction? It's sort of almost impossible to answer that question.

Without giving something away? Yeah, now that's where I'm at. I'm literally like, I could be really, I'll be really bad at poker. I have so much to say about that. I have so much to say about it and I can't say any of it. I have been sold like a broodmare.

I've been shamed and betrayed, raped and defiled. In a series known for its strong female leads, the arc of Emilia Clarke's character is perhaps the most dramatic. She's a girl who has grown into a power that no one could have ever seen coming from the timid, frightened, sold piece of property that she was in the beginning of the show. Emilia Clarke's own beginnings were much more pleasant.

She was born in London and got her first taste of acting at just five years old. We did this play and I forgot all my lines, all four of them. And I remember just standing there and just smiling and being like, this is kind of cool.

Everybody's here, what's going on? And felt so at ease and so comfortable on the stage. Even not knowing your lines? Not knowing my lines, whatever it was, I just felt really, really, really comfortable there. More so than in a group of like three girls. And that has stayed with me forever, where like, put me in a room with a thousand people and I'm zen, chill, completely chill.