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tv   60 Minutes  CBS  July 7, 2024 7:00pm-8:00pm PDT

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a car chase may have provided a clue to a national security mystery. many u.s. officials and their families believe they've been injured by a secret weapon in the hands of a foreign adversary. >> it's devastating. it's absolutely devastating. >> tonight, we have evidence of who might be responsible. are we being attacked? >> my personal opinion, yes. >> by whom? >> russia. kevin hart is a comedian. >> i've been 5'5" my whole life. >> a movie star. and as you will hear tonight, a budding tycoon. >> cheers. >> are you a billionaire yet? >> none of your business. are you trying to get me robbed?
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>> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm cecilia vega. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and more tonight on "60 minutes." ughh. miralax works naturally with the water in your body to help you go. free your gut and your mood will follow. for 8 grams of fiber, try mirafiber gummies. "all eyes on me" performed by gi-yan for 8 grams of fiber, ♪ all eyes on me brand new drip is what they see ♪ ♪ these diamonds, diamonds on my teeth ♪ ♪ brand new whip is what they see, yeah ♪ ♪ in my bag like a bunch of groceries ♪ ♪ all this cheese and greens just come to me ♪ ♪ look at me on the go. always hustling. eyes on me ♪ ♪ all eyes on me, brand new drip is what they see ♪ ♪ these diamonds, diamonds on my teeth ♪ ♪ brand new whip is what they see, yeah ♪ freedom you can't take your eyes off. the new 2024 jeep wrangler and gladiator. jeep. there's only one.
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did you ever worry we wouldn't get to enjoy this? [jeff laughs maniacally] (inner monologue) seriously, i'm on the green and all i can think about is all the green i'm spending on 3 kids in college. with empower, i get all of my financial questions answered. so i don't have to worry. empower. what's next. tonight, we have important developments in our five-year investigation of mysterious brain injuries reported by u.s. national security officials. the injured include white house staff, cia officers, fbi agents, military officers and their families.
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many believe that they were wounded by a secret weapon that fires a high energy beam of microwaves or ultrasound. this is our fourth story. and as we reported in march, we now have evidence of who might be responsible. most of the injured have fought for america, often in secret. and they are frustrated the u.s. government publicly doubts that an eadversary is targeting americans. one of them is carrie. she's still an fbi agent working in counterintelligence. she says in 2021, she was home in florida when she was hit by a crippling force. >> bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling on steroids. that feeling when -- it gets too
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close to your eardrum, it's like that times ten. it was like a high pitched metallic drilling noise. it knocked me forward. a 45-degree angle this way. >> she was by a window in her laundry room. >> my right ear was line of sight to that window. the whole thing was happening in my ear. when i leaned forward, it didn't knock me over but forward. immediately felt pressure. pressure and pain started coursing from inside my right ear down my jaw and down my neck and into my chest. >> at the same time, fbi agent carrie told us, the battery in her phone began to swell until it broke the case. finally, she passed out on a couch. because of chest pain, she was checked by a cardiologist and then returned to duty. >> i remember complaining to my colleagues for months after that, i felt like i had early
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alzheimer's, short-term memory, long-term memory, confusing memories, multitasking. i was not the same person. >> her story matches those we have uncovered over the years. >> it was like this piercing feeling on the side of my head. i remember it was on the right side of my head. i got vertigo. >> olivia troye worked with mike pence. she told us she was hit outside the white house. >> then severe ear pain started. i liken it to if you put a q-tip too far. imagine a sharp pencil and poking in. >> this man told us he was among the first publicly known cases in 2016 from our embassy in cuba. that's how the incidents became known as havana syndrome. he is medically retired from an
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agency we can't name. blind in one eye and struggling for balance. >> what we hear -- >> a major medical study for the government was led by dr. david relman. in our 2022 report, he told us -- >> what we found was we thought clear evidence of an injury to the ouauditory and vestibular system of the brain. the inner ear where humans perceive sound and sense balance and then translate those perceptions into brain electrical signals. >> his study found directed pulsed radiofrequency energy appears to be the most plausible mechanism. for example, a focused beam of microwaves or acoustic ultrasound. more than 100 officials or
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family members have unexplained persistent symptoms. >> if i turn too fast, my gyroscope is off. it's a step behind. i will turn too fast and i will walk into the wall or the door frame. >> now, the case of fbi agent carrie suggest which adversary might be responsible. she spoke with the fbi's permission, but wasn't allowed to discuss the cases she was on when she was hit. we have learned from other sources one of those cases involved a mustang going 110 miles an hour. >> pull over. pull over. >> in 2020 near key west, florida, deputies tried to stop the mugs stang from speeding. it ran 15 miles until it hit spike strips laid in its path.
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>> get on the ground now. >> a search of the car found notes of bank accounts. >> citibank. discover savings, $75,000. >> and this device that looks like a wa walkie-talkie. there was also a russian -- vitalii was the driver from saint petersburg, russia. >> why did you run? >> i don't know. >> we don't know why he ran. but what we learned suggests he was a russian spy. >> what we see here is vitalii fitting this formula. >> christo is a journalist
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legendary for unmasking russian plots. he uncovered the names of the russians that went after navalny. he is lead investigator for our collaborator on this story, "the insider." we asked him to trace vitalii. >> he started in the military institute, with a particular focus on use within the military of microelectronics. all the technology know-how to assist an operation that requires high technology. all of a sudden, after working for twos in a military institute, he decides to become a chef. >> he came to the u.s. and worked as a chef in new york and washington, d.c., even appearing
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at far left in a tv cooking segment. >> russian recipes thanks to our wonderful chef. >> kovalev was a russian military electrical engineer with a top secret security clearance. can someone like co kovalev dro that and become a chef? >> once you are in the military and trained and the ministry of defense invested in you, you remain at rtheir beck and call. >> we don't know what he was up to. our sources say, over months, he spent 80 hours being interviewed by fbi agent carrie, who had investigated multiple russian spies. he pled guilty to evading police and reckless driving. he was sentenced to 30 months. while he was in jail, carrie
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says she was hit in florida and a year later when she awoke to the same symptoms in the middle of the night in california. >> it felt like i was stuck in this state of disorientation, not able to function. what is happening? my whole body was pulsing. >> this is her attorney. he has a security clearance and has represented americans working in national security. he has more than two dozen clients suffering symptoms of havana syndrome, which the government now calls anomalous health incidents. >> i have cia and state department clients as well who believe they have been impacted domestically. there are dozens of cia cases that have happened domestically, that is at least believed.
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talking about ficphysical manifestation, computer issues in the midst of the incident where computer screens just literally stop working or go flicker on and off. >> do you know whether there are other fbi agents who have also suffered from these anomalous health incidents? >> there are other fbi agents and personnel, not just agents, analysts. i represent one other fbi person who was impacted in miami. i also know of fbi personnel who believe they were hit overseas in the last decade. >> were any of these members of the fbi counterintelligence people in addition to carrie? >> the one thread that i know of with the fbi personnel that is common among most if not all of my clients, other than connecte
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employee, was they were all doing something related to russia. >> vitalii served his time and in 2022 went back to russia, ignoring american warnings that he was in danger because he spent so much time with the fbi. chr christo found this death certificate from last year, which says he was killed at the front in ukraine. do you think kovalev was sent to ukraine as a punishment? >> one theory he was sentposed ? >> is he really dead? >> that is a very good question. we actually worked on both hypothesis for a while. i believe at this point that he was dead. >> we are dealing with -- it's not going anywhere. look how effective it has been. it's next generation weaponry.
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unfortunately, it's been refined on some of us. we're the test subjects. >> when we come back, you will hear from the pentagon official who led a global investigation into who is targeting americans. ♪♪ i have type 2 diabetes, but i manage it well. ♪♪ ♪♪ jardiance! -it's a little pill with a ♪♪ ♪♪ big story to tell. ♪♪ ♪♪ i take once-daily jardiance ♪♪ ♪♪ at each day's staaart. ♪♪
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u.s. intelligence says there is no credible evidence -- and yet, more than 100 americans have symptoms that scientists say could be caused by a beam of microwaves or acoustic ultrasound. the pentagon launched an investigation run by a recently retired army lieutenant colonel. in march, greg edgreen -- are we
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being attacked? >> my personal opinion, yes. >> by whom? >> russia. >> greg ran the investigation for the defense intelligence agency. he described his team's work from 2021 to 2023. >> we were collecting a large body of data ranging from signals intelligence, human intelligence. open source reporting. anything regarding internet, travel records, financial records, you name it. unfortunately, i can't get into specifics based on the classification. i can tell you at a very early stage sti started to focus on moscow. >> you can tell me about the patterns? >> one of the things i started to notice was the caliber of our
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officer that was being impacted. this wasn't happening to our worst or our middle range officers. this was happening to our top 5%, 10% performing officers across the defense intelligence agency. cons consistently, there was a russia nexus. they had focused on russia and done extremely well. >> what has been the impact on american national security? >> the impact has been that the intelligence -- they are being removed from their posts with traumatic brain injuries. >> we learned at an incident in lithuania. it focused on russia's invasion of ukraine. multiple sources tell us that a
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senior official -- was struck by the symptoms and sought medical treatment. we told greg edgreen what we had learned. >> it tells me there are no barriers on what moscow will do, on who they will attack. that if we didn't face this head on, the problem is going to get worse. >> the problem first appeared in public in 2016. u.s. officials reported being hurt in cuba and the incidents became known as havana syndrome. but we have learned it started two years earlier when at least four americans reported symptoms in germany. there is also evidence of what could be revenge attacks. for example, in 2014, three cia officers were stationed in ukraine. vladimir putin's obsession. 2014 was the year that a revolt
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overthrew putin's preferred leader. later, those cia officers went on to other assignments and reported being hit, one in u uzbekistan and one in vietnam and the third officer's family was hit in london. if it's russia, christo believes he knows who is involved. in 2018, he was the first to discover the existence of a top secret russian intelligence unit which goes by a number, 29-155. >> these are people trained to be versatile assassins and sabotage operators, trained in countersurveillance, in explosives and technology equipment to inflict pain or damage to the targets.
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>> he worked on "the insider" on one in germany. he has a long track record uncovering russian documents. he says he found one that may link 29-155 to a directed energy weapon. >> when i saw it, i literally -- spelling out what they had been doing. >> it's a -- an officer of 29-155 received a bonus for work on, quote, potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons. >> which told us this particular unit had been engaged with somewhere, somehow empirical tests of directed energy. >> written down in black and white. >> it's a receipt you can have for this. >> we have found that russia's 29-155 may have been present in
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tbilisi, georgia, when americans reported incidents there. >> do you believe you were attacked? >> absolutely. >> she asked us to withhold her name for her safety. she's the wife of a justice department official who was with the embassy in tbilisi. she's a nurse with a ph.d. in anesthesiology. on october 7, 2021, she says that she was in her laundry room when she was blindsided by a sound. >> as i'm reaching into the dryer, i'm completely consumed by a piercing sound that i can only describe as when you listen to a movie and the main character is also consumed by the sound after a bomb goes off. that is similar to the sound that i heard. it just pierced my ears, came in
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my left side. felt like it came through the window into my left ear. i immediately felt fullness in my head and just a piercig headache. when i realized that i needed to get out of the laundry room, i left the room and went into our bedroom next door and projectile vomited in our bathroom. >> we have learned that hers was the second incident that week. sources tell us, earlier in the neighborhood a u.s. owe fficial their spouse and child were hit. we learned of a phone call intercepted nearby. a man says in russian, is it supposed to have blinking green lights? and, should i leave it on all night? we have no idea what he was talking about. but the next day, the incidents began. sources tell us that an
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investigation centered on this russian, albert averyanov. his name on travel manifests and phone records appears along sides known members of unit 29-155. he is also the son of the commander. >> he was grouped to become a member of the unit since he was 16. his number is in the phone books of all members of the unit. clearly, he is more than just the son of the boss. he is a colleague of these people. >> he found albert's phone was turned off during the tbilisi incidents. our sources say there's evidence someone logged into his personal email during this time, most likely areanov himself, placing him in the city. >> we believe members of unit 29-155 were there to facilitate,
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supervise or maybe even personally implement attacks on american diplomats and american government officials using an acoustic weapon. >> after you were able to get out of the laundry room, call your husband, what did you do then? >> i went downstairs. i first looked on our security camera right beside our front door to see if anyone was outside. there was a vehicle right outside of our gate. i took a photo of that vehicle. noticed that it was not a vehicle that i recognized. i went outside. >> did you see anyone around the vehicle? >> i did. >> we sent you a photograph of albert averyanov. this is the picture that we sent you. >> you did. >> i wonder if that looks anything like the man you saw outside your home. >> it absolutely does. when i received this photo, i
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had a vis ceral reaction. it made me feel sick. i cannot absolutely say for certainty that it is this man, but i can tell you that even to this day, looking at him makes me feel that same visceral reaction. i absolutely say that this looks like the man that i saw in the street. >> this 40-year-old wife and mother is among the most severely injured people we have met. >> my headaches and brain fog continued. later on into that weekend, i started having trouble walking down the stairs, specifically at night. i had trouble finding the steps to get down the stairs. so my coordination and vestibular system started just really falling apart. >> she was medically evacuated and now doctors say she has
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holes in her inner ear canals. the vis tsystem that creates th sense of balance. two surgeries put metal plates in her skull. another surgery is likely. >> it's devastating. it's absolutely devastating. >> despite experiences like hers, the office of the director of national intelligence said last year, it's very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible. but the dni also acknowledged some intelligence agencies had only low or moderate confidence in that assessment. recently, the national institutes of health reported results of brain scans on some patients. nih said, there's no evidence of physical damage. but the medical science of so-called anomalous health incidents remains vigorously debated. for its part, the director of
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national intelligence says the symptoms probably resulthf pre-existing conditions, conventional instances and environmental factors. the attorney represents more than two dozen clients. what do you make of the intelligence community assessment? >> i have had access to classified information relating to ahi. i can't reveal it. i wouldn't reveal it. i will tell you that i don't believe it to be the entire story. i know of information that undermines or contradicts what they are saying publicly. >> are you saying that the government wants to cover this up? >> there is, in my view, without a doubt, evidence of a coverup. some of that is not necessarily that, we found a weapon and we don't want anybody to know about it. what i have seen more so is, we
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see lines of inquiry that would take us potentially to answers we don't want to have to deal with. so we're not going to explore any of those avenues. >> if my mother had seen what i saw, she would say, it's the russians, stupid. >> greg, who ran the military investigation, told us he had the pentagon's support. but in the trump and biden administrations, he says, the bar for proof was set impossibly high. >> i think it was set so high because we did not, as a country, and a government, want to face some very hard truths. >> what are those? >> can we secure america? are these massive counterintelligence failures? can we protect american soil and our people on american soil?
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are we being attacked? if we're being attacked, is that an act of war? >> after what he learned in his classified investigation, greg edgreen retired from the army to start a company to help the victims. he hopes to channel government contracts into treatment programs. as with all spy stories, much is classified and what remains is circumstantial. none of the witnesses tonight wanted to speak. some fear for their families. but all felt compelled to shine a light on what they see as a war of shadows, a war america may not be winning. >> if this is what we have seen with hundreds of cases of anomalous health incidents, i can assure you this is probably putin's biggest victory in his on mind. this has been russia's biggest victory against the west. >> in terms of the long-term,
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(light gentle music) - lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+. there have been plenty of successful stand-up comedians. few managed to do what kevin hart has. he has built an entertainment and business empire.
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in march, at 44, he was awarded the mark twain prize for american humor. as close to a lifetime achievement award as you can get. hart's comedy isn't controversial. it's conversational with cursing thrown in. he tells stories about his wife and four kids, his embarrassing insecurities and his many shortcomings. on stage, he is an open book. when we sat down with him earlier this year, on one topic at least, he was a bit hard to pin down. you are 5'5". "l.a. times" says you are 5'4". >> gq got it right, 5'5". with a shoe on, a sneaker. if i put a boot on, i can get to 5'5.5". >> 43 years old. i've been 5'5" my whole life.
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talking about the things that you aren't afraid to laugh at about yourself. i'm confident that the laugh that i'm getting, you are not laughing necessarily at me as if i'm a joke. you are laughing at the experience. a story that is relatable and more importantly, i'm saying things that other people just don't have the heart to say. >> you told a story about your wife watching tall people porn. >> he was taller than me. >> that was your issue? >> why is he so call? is that what you want? we had a real conversation off of that. is that what you are looking for? >> you can't fix that. >> i can't fix that. we got a problem. >> one site was a bunch of tall men being active. they were changing light bulbs, putting up shelves. hanging paintings. what kind of sick -- what is
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this? you can't do none of that stuff. i like that stuff. >> he is the highest grossing comedian today. he sells out arenas around the world and the occasional football stadium. >> we sold a football stadium out tonight. i need to hear that. the wall is full of great comedians. >> when we met him, he was working on new material for a comedy tour. how long does it take -- >> you need to work on the set eight to nine months. >> are you sitting in a room with your team -- >> no. i'm going back to ground zero. >> small comedy clubs? >> rooms. i got two guys. they act as my writers. what they do is, they grab my material as i say it. you can't write it down for me. i don't like the long jokes or long sentences. it has to be in bullet points.
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travel. bad. bad travel. why bad travel makes me drive. driving. good versus bad. everything has a good and a bad. my rule is when i get on stage, i would rather have the dismantled picture in my head of what i think it is and it not be good than figure out in real time and walk off stage and go, it was something there. >> a few hours later, 3,000 people showed up in pasadena to hear hart figure out his new jokes on stage. everyone had to hand over their phones. before he began, hart explained why. >> 90% of what i'm going to do tonight i feel is really good. the reason why i took your phones is because of the other 10%. right? just in case. just in case some of it is
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not -- you don't have no proof. >> we agreed not to record any of his routine either. backstage we found his collaborators, harry and joey, taking a lot of notes. >> i appreciate you all. good night. how was this audience? >> i thought it was great. great. you could feel the laughter never stop. that's the beauty of a theater. the theater lets you feel the highs and lows of a set. >> so much he wants to do. >> joey and harry and will are among his closest friends. they are known professionally as the plastic cup boyz. what are you looking for when he is on a stage and telling a joke? what notes do you have? >> harry is structure. put the joke here and move it around. for me, i'm always just like, how can it be funnier? he might get a standing ole vav --
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ovation. that was great but try this. >> they have known him since he grew up in a rough neighborhood in north philadelphia. was he always as confident as he is today? >> yes. why does this ugly dude have so much confidence? >> he swears he can dance. >> home movies his mom made show he was always the entertainer. she kept a close eye on kevin. >> every moment. i had no free time. after finishing my homewor, i had to get to swim practice. we would walk home. the homework i was supposed to do before, she would go over and check. end up making me redo it because nine out of ten, i rushed through it. she would make me read. i would skip pages. not expecting the quiz of the book to come. >> she would give you.
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>> she would give me when i said i was done. she would make me read it again. >> do you credit her with the drive you have? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> his mom also kept kevin's dad at a distance. he was in and out of prison and addicted to drugs, which hart talked about in a 2011 stand-up special called "laugh at my pain." >> i was in a weird spelling bee, debates. my dad would show up at my events and treat them as if they were athletic events. you can't cheer for no kid at a spelling bee. it's a spelling bee. it's quiet. i'm focused. i'm in the middle of spelling a difficult word. my dad shows up late high as hell. i cannot make this up. this is all i heard. i'm in the middle of spelling something. all i heard was, all right, all right, all right. yeah! >> the actual details of stuff he did are really heartbreaking. >> yeah.
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>> and yet, you tell it in a way that's funny. is it heartbreaking to you? >> no. >> it must have been at the time. >> i see it for what it was. as a kid, that's dad. by the way, in my environment, that's the norm. it's normal to see a parent drunk or whatever. >> your dad, even in the depth of his addiction -- >> there was a period he disappeared. i didn't see him in a long time. i saw him on the subway. he was in bad shape. i was like, dad, he turned around and saw me and doors open and any dad walked off and ran. he said it hurt him to see him like that. >> hart was able to help his dad get clean before he died in 2022. >> my dad is crazy. >> kevin said his father loved to hear the stories he today about him in front of thousands of people. >> we talk about my dad. we celebrate my dad.
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>> but when he started doing stand-up at 18, he struggled to find places to perform. you would take gigs wherever you could get them. >> you are talking bowling alleys, cabarets, strip clubs. >> is there comedy in strip clubs? >> no. i don't know who thought that comedy and strippers mix. i remember one of the most heartbreaking moments, it was like in the middle of my set -- >> at a strip club? >> i remember this lady go, oh, baby. >> after you told a joke? >> oh, baby. basically, so disgusted and heartbroken this is what i chose to do with my life. >> he thought he was about to make it big when he shot a sitcom for abc in 2003. they flew him out to present the show to advertisers and the
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media. >> i'm next to walk on stage. you are the guy with the microphone that's backstage managing. this is what i see. he is right here. i'm waiting. kevin, hold up. they said they are not going go through with picking up. somebody will be back here to talk to you shortly. >> the guy with the microphone is telling you that your series is not being picked up? >> not the network exec. >> not the ceo saying -- >> no, no, no. i guy named barry in the back holding the curtain. >> it was only because of that rejection -- >> i don't want to feel that. i don't like that you got to hire me when you are ready. my career is basically determined off of the needs of people that i don't know? that i don't talk to? i might be sitting here here all day. if i don't go grab it and i don't go make what i feel should
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be mine. >> that is what he did. he started a small production company now called hartbeat afand began making his own specials. he marketed himself through social media. hollywood studios took notice. >> get on my back. >> i would rather die. >> jump on my back. >> i'm going to die. >> what's up? >> when he was picked in 2018 to host the oscars, it seemed like a high point in his career. >> i have nothing against gay people. >> the comments he made about gay people years earlier on stage and on twitter caused controversy. >> me being a heterosexual male, if i can prevent my son from being gay, i will. >> he stepped down. >> later on, the understanding came from the best person, wanda sykes. she said, there are people being hurt today because of comments
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like the ones you made then. people think it's okay to make those comments based off what you did then. it was presented to me in a way where i couldn't ignore that. in those moments of despair, great understanding and education can come out of it if you are given the opportunity. >> these days, it's hard to keep track of the businesses hart has a hand in. the weekend we spent with him he was in constant motion and promotion, starting with his daily pre-dawn workout. >> is this what you want? this what you want? >> then he was off to walmart to publicize a nutrition company he owns. >> you are a real person. >> i am. >> he has a fast food chain. a tequila brand and a $100 million venture capital fund. and the little production company he started is worth more
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than $650 million. >> i'm no longer just a comedian. i'm an investment. i'm a studio. i'm a partner. looking for partnerships. work for hire is not this my best interest if it's a one and done situation. >> that means the endless streams of movies, shows, pod ka podcasts and commercials he shows up in, he is making money off of those. are you a billionaire yet? >> are you trying to get me robbed? >> you will be a billionaire? >> hopefully. even if i don't or i'm not, i think the better side to what i have done is create what can become the new norm for other people in the business of funny. for other people in the business of entertainment. not just being a part of the business but learning and understanding how to be the business.
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wow. -incredible, isn't it? -yeah. well, with your home, auto, boat and rv all bundled with progressive you've got the peace of mind to really wander. yeah. yeah, i just hope it stays this way. once word gets out about these places they tend to -- -are you done? -aaand there it is. well, at least your vehicles are protected. let's hit the road. hey fam! i'm just at this beautiful lake that i just discovered. practicing gratitude, manifesting abundance.
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(husband) we just want to have enough money for retirement. (wife) and travel to visit our grandchildren. (fisher investments) i understand. that's why at fisher investments we start by getting to know each other. so i can learn about your family, lifestyle, goals and needs, allowing us to tailor your portfolio. (wife) what about commission-based products? (fisher investments) we don't sell those. we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in your best interest. (husband) so how do your management fees work? (fisher investments) we have a transparent fee, structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments, we're clearly different.
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[ ticking ] what you are watching is the