04/26/2026: Shots Fired, Ben Sasse, The Pigeon Mafia

Summary

---

60 Minutes Podcast Summary

Episode: April 27, 2026 – Shots Fired, Ben Sasse, The Pigeon Mafia

---

Overview

This episode of 60 Minutes delivers three compelling reporting segments:

1. Shots Fired – An inside account of the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, including an exclusive interview with President Trump shortly afterward.
2. Ben Sasse: A Final Word – A poignant conversation with the terminally ill former Senator, reflecting on politics, progress, and mortality.
3. The Pigeon Mafia – An investigation into the high-stakes, crime-ridden world of elite racing pigeons in Belgium.

Each narrative blends first-hand interviews with sharp reporting and storytelling, tackling issues of national security, political dysfunction, and oddly enough, avian organized crime.

---

Segment 1: Shots Fired at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

[01:10–17:24]

Key Points & Insights

• Incident Overview:
  Last night, a gunman breached security at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. The event hosted President Trump, Vice President, First Lady, Cabinet members, and over 2,500 guests.
• Attacker’s Motive:
  The shooter, a 31-year-old teacher from California, sent a manifesto to his family before the attack, targeting Trump administration officials.
• Security Response:
  The President details the chaos and actions during the incident, highlighting the professionalism of the Secret Service and law enforcement.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Trump on the Attacker’s Mental State, Family Warnings:

  “His family was very concerned. He was probably a pretty sick guy.”
  — Donald Trump [05:08]

• On Realizing the Threat:

  “I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on… I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me see.”
  — Donald Trump [07:44]

• On Dropping to the Floor:

  “When they said drop down, that meant trouble. And obviously, I'm the President, and I listened to what they said.”
  — Donald Trump [09:29]

• Manifesto Allegations & Trump’s Reaction:

  Donnell: “He also wrote... I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction?”
  Trump: "Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're horrible people… I'm not any of those things… you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I'm not any of those things."
  — [11:58–12:48]

• On Political Violence:

  “I'm not sure that there's any more now than there was (in history). I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so, is very dangerous.”
  — Donald Trump [14:50]

• Reaffirming the Importance of the Event:

  “I think it’s really bad for a crazy person to be able to cancel something like this… Now, the event turned out to be much less bad because nobody was killed, nobody was hurt. The Secret Service agent had a bulletproof vest on. Unbelievable.”
  — Donald Trump [15:39, 16:31]

Important Timestamps

• [05:03] — Donnell questions Trump about being the target.
• [07:23] — Security's swift response and evacuation.
• [11:37] — Reading the manifesto's most inflammatory claim.
• [15:34] — On resuming the dinner, defending freedom of the press.

---

Segment 2: Ben Sasse – A Final Word

[17:57–30:54]

Key Points & Insights

• Personal Context:
  Ben Sasse, aged 54, is dying of metastatic pancreatic cancer. His experiences offer a perspective both personal and political.
• Political Reflections:
  Sasse critiques both political parties’ lack of vision for the future, saying Congress is failing to grapple with issues like technological change, AI, and the changing nature of work.
• Community & Identity:
  Sasse argues that local communities—and not political tribes—should be people’s fundamental units of belonging.
• Impeachment Legacy:
  He recalls his high-profile opposition to Trump after January 6th and insists true conservatism is the antithesis of “personality cults” and conspiracy thinking.
• Personal Legacy & Mortality:
  He discusses faith, family, and accepting death, affirming the importance of being a father and neighbor above all political titles.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Living with a Terminal Diagnosis:

  “Having a terminal diagnosis isn’t really that unique. We’re all always on the clock… It becomes an opportunity to talk about bigger stuff.”
  — Ben Sasse [18:46]

• On Congressional Blindness:

  “Neither of these parties really have very big or good ideas about 2030 or 2050. The Congress is not wrestling with big or important questions right now.”
  — Ben Sasse [19:46]

• On Community:

  “Your fundamental political community is your neighborhood and your city hall… Right now we are sacrificing a lot of our national politics to weird folks who want their main community to be their political tribe at a federal level. And that should be like the ninth thing or the 15th thing you care about, not the first or second thing.”
  — Ben Sasse [21:17]

• On January 6th & Conservatism:

  “Personality cults aren’t conservative. Conspiracy theories aren’t conservative. Lying that an election has been stolen, it’s not conservative. Acting like politics is a religion, it isn’t conservative.”
  — Ben Sasse [23:14]

• On Leaving the Senate vs. Family:

  “The best thing you can do is be called dad or mom, lover, neighbor, friend… [Public office] should be your 11th calling, or maybe sixth, but never top his calling.”
  — Ben Sasse [23:56]

• On the Senate’s Current Culture:

  “The Senate needs to be less like Instagram… less smackdown nonsense… The Senate should be plodding and steady and boring and trustworthy.”
  — Ben Sasse [25:28]

• On Facing Death & Faith:

  “Death is wicked. Death is evil. Death is not how it’s supposed to be… I hate cancer, but I’m also grateful for it. I tell a lot more truth to myself than I used to.”
  — Ben Sasse [27:44]

• On Family and Legacy:

  “I want to give [my son] more advice than he wants and I want to put my arm on his shoulder. I want his shoulders to get taller. But it’s not a surprise to God.”
  — Ben Sasse [29:28]

Important Timestamps

• [18:46] — Sasse on the perspective gained from terminal illness.
• [19:46–20:50] — Critique of Congress’s focus and the digital revolution.
• [23:14] — His stand after January 6th and Republican identity.
• [25:28] — Reflecting on how the Senate’s media exposure affects governance.
• [27:44] — Candid reflection on faith, death, and gratitude.

---

Segment 3: The Pigeon Mafia

[31:13–44:23]

Key Points & Insights

• The Crime Wave:
  Racing pigeons in Belgium—a multi-million-dollar industry—are increasingly targets for theft, drawing in organized crime dubbed the “pigeon mafia.”
• Elite Pigeon Breeding:
  Belgium is to racing pigeons what Kentucky is to thoroughbred horses. Some birds are worth up to $1.8 million, attracting global buyers, especially from China.
• The Heist:
  Tom Vongaver, a top breeder, had his prized “Finn” and several other birds stolen in a night-time raid—one of 35 such robberies in 3 years.
• The Market & Motivation:
  Pigeon auctions can reach annual sales of $46 million, with much of this driven by global demand and soaring prize purses.
• Detection & Recovery:
  Genetic testing (using DNA from feathers) is a new tool to identify stolen birds and their descendants, making illicit trade riskier.
• Law Enforcement:
  Police used surveillance video and DNA databases to recover some stolen birds and convict a theft ring, but Finn remains missing.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Value of Finn, the Pigeon:

  “It’s like the Mona Lisa from the pigeon sport they stole.”
  — Tom Vongaver [34:05]

• On What Makes a Good Racing Pigeon:

  “You can have a very smart pigeon, but when the body is not strong enough, his head wants to go home, but the body cannot follow the other.”
  — Tom Vongaver [32:29]

• On Handling Pigeons:

  “It’s got to be like a steel bar. But then it has to be as light as an empty soda can. And the feathers have to be like the most beautiful woman’s hair. Soft and silky… and the eye has to look like you’re at Tiffany’s.”
  — Ryan Zoniken [35:08]

• On One Loft Racing & Big Money:

  “All racing pigeons are identified by leg bands. Just before the race, each of the 3,300 birds is scanned into a database and then driven 300 miles away to be released. The first pigeon to find their way back into the loft wins.”
  — Sharon Alfonsi [37:15]

• On Security:

  “Oh, multiple cameras, laser beams going across.”
  — Anderson Cooper [41:35]

• On Using DNA Testing:

  “It has been very important in proving parentage. Father, mother, for sale of pigeons.”
  — Reuben Landcreet, Pigeon Vet [42:04]

• On the Thieves & the Stakes:

  “Eight co-conspirators were convicted, with the mastermind sentenced to 30 months in jail. But he won’t reveal what happened to the rest of Tom Vongaver’s stolen pigeons, including Finn.”
  — Sharon Alfonsi [43:55]

• On Motivation:

  “I want my pigeon back.”
  — Tom Vongaver [44:13]

Important Timestamps

• [32:29] — What makes an elite racing pigeon.
• [34:05] — Discovery of the theft and the value of Finn.
• [39:31] — Auction industry scale and the Chinese connection.
• [41:01] — Rise of the “pigeon mafia” and advanced security.
• [42:04–43:55] — DNA solves some crimes; not all pigeons are recovered.

---

Final Reflection: Admiral McRaven on Honor

[44:28–45:48]

• McRaven’s Commentary on Honor:
  Admiral William McRaven, reflecting on the American ideal of honor and the universal human challenge to “do the right thing even when it’s hard”.
• Key Quote:

  "Honor is what makes humanity so very, very worthwhile. But in the American context, honor to me is about upholding the values that were baked into our national DNA… Doing the right thing, even when it's hard, will always put you on the right side of history."
  — Admiral William McRaven [44:48]

---

Conclusion

This episode of 60 Minutes exemplifies its range: from the White House under fire, to deeply personal reckonings with public service and mortality, to the intersection of organized crime and animal racing. It blends brisk, insightful conversation with the depth of classic reporting, offering listeners urgent news, enduring lessons, and the occasional quirky curiosity.

---

Transcript

[Dermalogica Advertiser]

Real skin results Start with one daily ritual. Meet daily Microfoliant from Dermalogica. This iconic exfoliating powder activates with water to gently polish away dullness and uneven texture. It leaves skin instantly smoother and more luminous while supporting your skin barrier. Formulated with professional expertise to deliver visible results daily, even on sensitive skin. Discover your healthiest skin today. Visit dermalogica.com and use code Smooth at checkout for an exclusive gift with your $65 purchase.

[Lemonade Pet Insurance Advertiser]

Do you love your pets? Do you love suspense? Do you love it when your pets keep you in suspense because they ate something mysterious? And who knows what the vet visit will cost? If you answered yes twice and then no, you should protect your pet with Lemonade Pet Insurance. It can save you up to 90% on vet bills for checkups, emergencies, diagnostics, all the stuff that leaves you financially on the edge of your seat. Get a quick and Easy [e-mail] pet and get your suspense somewhere else. Lemon like from a riveting podcast.

[Nora O'Donnell]

Last night in Washington, a gunman stormed the security perimeter at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The president, the vice president, cabinet members and more than 2,500 guests were gathered to celebrate freedom of the press. We spoke with President Trump this afternoon.

[Donnell]

How worried were you that there were going to be injuries?

[Scott Pelley]

You don't have much time, so why are you spending time doing this?

[Ben Sasse]

You invited me, so I assume you needed to fill some time.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

Precious time with Ben Sasse is well spent. The former US Senator and college president has perhaps only months to live, but time enough for one last lesson in what America can be.

[Ben Sasse]

Neither of these parties really have very big or good ideas about 2030 or 2050. The Congress is not wrestling with big or important questions right now.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

It's a whodunit in the heart of Europe with mission impossible break ins, organized crime and international intrigue. We've heard people talking about a pigeon mafia. Is that a thing? Forget the Maltese Falcon. This mystery is about a Belgian pigeon and a sport gone cuckoo.

[Scott Pelley]

I'm Scott Pelley.

[Donald Trump]

I'm Bill Whitaker.

[Anderson Cooper]

I'm Anderson Cooper.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

I'm Sharon Alfonsi.

[Ben Sasse]

I'm John Wertheim.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

I'm Cecilia Vega.

[Nora O'Donnell]

I'm Nora o'.

[Donnell]

Donnell.

[Leslie Stahl]

Hi, I'm Leslie Stahl. Those stories and in our last minute, an admiral charts America's course. Tonight on 60 Minutes,

[Rosetta Stone Advertiser]

Everyone learns a language for different reasons. Maybe you want to watch K dramas without subtitles or talk with family members in their native language. Your life is unique. Your language learning should be too. Rosetta Stone the trusted leader in language Learning for over 30, just launched Rosetta Stone Sapphire, a new app that combines its proven immersion method with the latest innovation in technology to help you learn faster, personalize your lessons, and have more fun along the way. Most language apps teach the same generic topics. Sapphire helps you focus on what you actually want to talk about, whether that's travel, family, work, or your favorite hobbies. If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire listeners can get 20% off their Rosetta Stone subscription when they sign up. Today, you'll get unlimited access to all 25 Rosetta Stone languages, plus all the new Sapphire learning tools. Visit rosettastone.comaudio to redeem your 20% off. That's rosettastone.com audio and start learning a language for real.

[Nora O'Donnell]

Last night in the nation's capital, a gunman stormed the security perimeter at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The President, the First lady, the Vice President, Cabinet members and more than 2,500 guests were gathered to celebrate the First Amendment and freedom of the press. But after shots were fired, the President was evacuated. It was at the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan was nearly assassinated by John Hinckley 45 years ago. Tonight, federal investigators are looking into the motive of the alleged gunman, a 31 year old teacher from Torrance, California. He emailed what a senior official called a manifesto to his family minutes before the attack. He wrote he was targeting members of the Trump administration. We spoke with President Trump this afternoon at the White House about what happened.

[Donnell]

Mr. President, do you know if you were the target of the gunman?

[Donald Trump]

I don't know. It sounded to me. I read a manifesto. He's radicalized. He was a Christian believer and then he became an anti Christian and he had a lot of change. He's been going through a lot based on what he wrote. His brother complained about him and I think reported him to the police. And his sister likewise complained about him. His family was very concerned. He was probably a pretty sick guy.

[Donnell]

I was in the room not far from you. Mr. President could hear what sounded like gunshots or commotion. People nearby could smell the gunpowder. Everybody hit the floor. How worried were you that there were going to be injuries?

[Donald Trump]

I wasn't worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world.

[Donnell]

You are sitting there next to the First Lady. The entertainer named Oz Perlman is talking to you. He's known as the mentalist. When did you know something was wrong?

[Donald Trump]

Right around that point, in fact. You can see the expression on the first lady's face. And your president of the evening. Chairman or president or both, who is doing a great job, by the way.

[Donnell]

Weijia Jang.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah. Who's a terrific person. They were asking the name of Caroline's child. That he didn't know, I guess.

[Donnell]

But he was what the secretary is expecting, and he was trying to guess the baby's name.

[Donald Trump]

That's right.

[Donnell]

You mentioned the first lady. Her face, she looked very alarmed. Was she scared?

[Donald Trump]

Well, I don't want to say. And people don't like having it said that they were scared. But certainly, I mean, who wouldn't be when you have a situation like that? By that time, I think she realized ahead of time that that was more of a bullet than it was a tray. And she was. I looked at her face just a little while ago before I came. I saw the scene. They played it for me in, you know, pretty good close up. And she looked very upset about what just took place. You know, why not?

[Donnell]

You see the security moving quickly. Within seconds, grabbing the vice president by his coat, lifting him up, bringing him out. Then the counter assault comes in. Took 10 seconds for them to flank you, Mr. President, and then 20 seconds to get you out. It looked chaotic. At one point, you were down. What was happening?

[Donald Trump]

Well, what happened is it was a little bit me. I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn't making it that easy for him. I wanted to see what was going on. And by that time, we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem. Different kind of a problem, Bad one. And different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom, which you hear all the time. And I was surrounded by great people, and I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me see. Wait a minute. So, you know, I'm telling guys, just

[Donnell]

at that moment where it looks like you go sort of down with the service, you were telling them to wait.

[Donald Trump]

No, what happened is. Then I started walking with them. I turned, I started walking and then said, please go down. Please go down on the floor. So I went down and first lady went down also. But we were asked to go down by the agents as I was walking.

[Donnell]

In other words, they wanted you almost to crawl.

[Donald Trump]

I was standing up, pretty much. I was standing up and then turned around the opposite direction and started pretty much walking out. Pretty tall, a little bent over, because I, you know, I'm not looking to be standing too tall and. But I was walking out. It was pretty. About halfway there. And they said, please go down to the floor. Please go down to the floor. Floor. So I dropped to the floor. So did the First Lady.

[Donnell]

What was your thought at that moment?

[Nora O'Donnell]

What did the first lady say?

[Donald Trump]

Well, my thought was, you know, I've been through this before a couple of times, and she has not to this extent. She handled it great. I mean, she was. She's very strong, smart. She got it. She knew what was happening. She listened. I did too, by the way, because

[Donnell]

this was the first time she listened.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah, when they said drop down, that meant trouble. And obviously, I'm the President, and I listened to what they said. Please drop down, sir. Please drop down. So I was walking halfway and then I dropped down at the final. Because we had little ways to go where you're exposed to the ballroom surroundings. And then I got up and we went to a hold room for a while and I tried to get them to continue the event, if possible.

[Nora O'Donnell]

You wanted to go back in?

[Donald Trump]

I did. I really did.

[Donnell]

You can see the gunman running through the metal detectors, and he fired off one or two rounds.

[Donald Trump]

His speed was rather incredible, actually. He was like a blur.

[Donnell]

How did he get that close with the place swarming with security?

[Donald Trump]

I will say. Look, I say it because I'm a big fan of the people of law enforcement. And, you know, some of these people, they may be crazy, but they're not stupid. And. And they figure things out. He ran 45 yards, they say, and he just went to it and then boom, he popped through it. I mean, he ran like. I think the NFL should sign him up. He was fast. When you look at it on tape, it's almost like a blur.

[Donnell]

Right?

[Donald Trump]

But it was amazing because as soon as they saw that, you could see them draw their guns, they were so professional, aimed their guns, and then they took them down immediately.

[Nora O'Donnell]

Two hours later, the President was back at the White House to brief reporters.

[Donald Trump]

I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was in one way very beautiful.

[Donnell]

Do you think this will change your relationship with the press?

[Donald Trump]

Well, look, for whatever reason, we disagree on a lot of subjects. We talk about crime. I'm very strong on crime. It seems like the press isn't. It's not so much the press. It's the press plus the Democrats because they're almost one and the same. It's like the craziest thing. I have the strongest border we've ever had in the country, where, as you know, it said zero people for nine months came into our country through our southern border. We have a very tough border.

[Donnell]

The so called Manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive. In it, he writes this, quote, administration officials, they are targets. And he also wrote this. I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction to that?

[Donald Trump]

Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody.

[Donnell]

Oh, you think he was referring to you?

[Donald Trump]

Excuse me, I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let's say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, you know, I'll do this interview and they'll probably. I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person, but you should be ashamed of yourself reading that, because I'm not any of those things.

[Donnell]

Mr. President, these are.

[Donald Trump]

Excuse me, you shouldn't be reading that on 60 Minutes. You're a disgrace. But go ahead. Let's finish the interview.

[Donnell]

The other thing that he wrote in.

[Donald Trump]

Disgraceful.

[Donnell]

The other thing in the manifesto that I think is worth looking at in terms of determining his motive is he had been staying at the hotel since Friday. He checked in. He said he had cased the place, and he wrote, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? And he wrote this quote, I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10ft, metal detectors out the wazoo. What I got is nothing. He wrote like, this level of incompetence is insane, sir. You have already had two.

[Donald Trump]

Well, he was pretty incompetent, too, because he got caught, and he got caught pretty easily. So I'd say he was pretty incompetent, too. You know, I could take any event having to do with security or anything else. I can always find fault. Those guys did a good job last night. They did a really good job.

[Donnell]

I mention that because, again, as his motive. You brought this up. He had social media accounts that had anti Trump and anti Christian rhetoric.

[Donald Trump]

You should read. Why don't you read all the anti Trump. Why don't you read it? You just did, so why don't you read it?

[Donnell]

Well, he had a lot of anti Christian rhetoric. He was part of a group called the Wide Awakes. He had attended a no Kings protest in California. No Kings what did security tell you about what may have been his motives?

[Donald Trump]

The reason you have people like that is you have people doing no kings. I'm not a king. What I am. If I was a king, I wouldn't be dealing with you.

[Donnell]

Also at the dinner last night was your secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. His sister, Kerry Kennedy was there. They've both witnessed their father and their uncle be assassinated.

[Donald Trump]

That's right.

[Donnell]

Erica Kirk was there. The House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise was there. Political violence has touched so many people in that room. Is there something that you as president can do? What can be done to change the trajectory?

[Donald Trump]

You know, you go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years. It's always been there. People are assassinated, people are injured, people are hurt. And I'm not sure that there's any more now than there was. I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so, is very dangerous. I really think it's very dangerous to the country.

[Nora O'Donnell]

President Trump told us he hopes to move events like last night's press gala to the new East Wing Ballroom that he says is ahead of schedule, though it won't be ready until 2028. But he wants last night's dinner to be rescheduled much sooner than that.

[Donnell]

You are committed to doing this event with the White House Correspondent Center. That's about freedom of the press.

[Donald Trump]

I want them because I don't want to see it be canceled. I don't want to. To have a crazy person. I think it's really bad for a crazy person to be able to cancel something like this. There are great people in the press, too, I can name, but I don't want to. I don't want to embarrass your show. We have some great people in the press, some very fair people, and people that are just on my side, but for the most part, it's a very liberal or very progressive. Let's use the word liberal. Liberal press. But I was just really. I was really happy to see the. I don't know how long it will last. The relationship, the friendship, the spirit after a very bad event took place. Now, the event turned out to be much less bad because nobody was killed, nobody was hurt. The Secret Service agent had. I spoke to him. He had a bulletproof vest on. Unbelievable.

[Donnell]

He's okay.

[Donald Trump]

Oh, he's 100%. Yeah. No, he was 100%. He didn't want to go to the hospital. He really didn't. They asked him to go. He didn't want to go. He said I don't need to go to the hospital. But he went because they asked him to go.

[Donnell]

Well, I know the White House Correspondents association very much appreciates you going last night and honoring a commitment to do it.

[Donald Trump]

I hope we're going to do it again. Nora, tell him to get it going and we should do it within 30 days. And they'll have even more security and they'll have bigger perimeter security. It'll be fine. But tell them to do it again. We can't let something be. It's not that I want to go. I'm very busy. I don't need that. I think it's very important that they do it again.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Hi, my name is Lloyd Lockridge and I'm the host of a new podcast from Odyssey called Family Lore. In this podcast, I'm going to have people on to tell unusual and sometimes far fetched stories about their families.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

I've heard my whole life that she invented the margarita.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And then we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true.

[Donald Trump]

He gets a patent one month before the Wright Brothers.

[Ben Sasse]

Oh my God.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Please follow and listen to Family Lore, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

[Scott Pelley]

Ben Sasse would like a final word. At the age of 54, the former US Senator of Nebraska is dying of pancreatic cancer. But a new drug is giving him extra time, time to hear his appeal for reason in Washington and community at home. Sasse is a conservative Republican of independent thought with a PhD in American history. He once told his fellow senators, the people despise us all because we are not doing our job. His cancer therapy leaves him looking seriously sunburned, but we found Ben Sasse as insightful, passionate and hopeful as ever.

[Ben Sasse]

I love America and I think there's a lot of people, big and meaty, things that we should have been talking about and we still can talk about. And having a terminal diagnosis isn't really that unique. We're all always on the clock. Some of us have the benefit. Maybe it's a weird word, but the benefit of knowing our time is finite and defined and it becomes an opportunity to talk about bigger stuff.

[Scott Pelley]

And you have focused.

[Ben Sasse]

Yeah, I mean, it's weird to be in your early 50s and get a terminal diagnosis and people all of a sudden act like you're 93 or 94 and you have a lot of wisdom. I don't know that I have a lot of wisdom, but I have a lot of things that I think we should be reflecting on together reflecting, he

[Correspondent/Narrator]

told us, on rebuilding communities neighbor to neighbor, regulating artificial intelligence before it overwhelms us, and mending broken politics.

[Ben Sasse]

Neither of these parties really have very big or good ideas about 2030 or 2050. At a national security level, at a future of work level, at an institution building level, the Congress is not wrestling with big or important questions right now.

[Scott Pelley]

If Congress is looking at the wrong things, what is it missing?

[Ben Sasse]

We are living through a digital revolution, which is both glorious and horrific at the same time. Because what the digital revolution does is it accelerates almost everything about the human experience. Anything that can be reduced to a series of steps, which is most economic activity, is going to be routinized and become really, really cheap, really fast and really ubiquitous. We've never lived in a world where 22 year olds couldn't assume that the work they did they would be able to do until death or retirement. And we're never going to have that world again. And Congress doesn't talk about any of those kind of most fundamental issues. The disruption of work, for good and for ill, should be front and central. Congress doesn't even know how to have that conversation.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

In 2014, Ben Sasse was a college president in Nebraska when he was recruited to run for Senate. He became one of the most popular politicians in state history, maybe because during Senate recesses he worked as a garbage man and a vendor at Cornhusker games just to stay in touch with the lives of Nebraskans.

[Scott Pelley]

What makes you a Republican?

[Ben Sasse]

I'm a Republican because I think the Lincoln Reagan continuum does the best job of building constraint on thinking. Washington is our fundamental political community. I think your fundamental political community is your neighborhood and your city hall and maybe even your state level legislature. And right now we are sacrificing a lot of our national politics to weird folks who want their main community to be their political tribe at a federal level. And that should be like the ninth thing or the 15th thing you care about, not the first or second thing.

[Scott Pelley]

You ended your Republican pantheon with Ronald Reagan. And I wonder, when you look at the Trump administration today, what do you see?

[Ben Sasse]

It's no secret that the current president and I wrestled on lots and lots of issues, but I, I don't spend much time commenting on our current politics because I don't really think our current politics are driving what's happening. I think it's mostly an echo of what's happening. I think we have really thin, shallow community right now, and unless people know the thickness of their local community, it's hard to make sense of what national politics are for. I think our national political dysfunction is an echo of larger problems.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

In 2020, Sasse was re elected with more votes in Nebraska than Donald Trump. Then came January 6th. That day, Sasse called out, quote, the screamers who monetize hate.

[Ben Sasse]

You can't do big things together as Americans if you think other Americans are the enemy.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

Later, in Trump's impeachment over January 6, Sasse was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict. His stand against the insurrection offended the Nebraska Republican Committee, so he sent them a message.

[Ben Sasse]

Personality cults aren't conservative. Conspiracy theories aren't conservative. Lying that an election has been stolen, it's not conservative. Acting like politics is a religion, it isn't conservative.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

In 2023, with four years left in his term, Sasse quit to become president of the University of Florida. There had been too little substance in the Senate and too much absence from his wife and three children.

[Scott Pelley]

Many senators I know would not be able to breathe without that job. It would kill them to leave.

[Ben Sasse]

I don't want what you said to be true, but I fear that that is true. And that is a sign of a much, much deeper problem. We got a lot of people who serve in government who really do think the highest and greatest thing you can ever do is have the title senator or Congressman. Bull. The best thing you can do is be called dad or mom, lover, neighbor, friend, governor, senator, house member. It's a great way to serve. It should be your 11th calling, or maybe sixth, but never top his calling.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

Left bipartisan consensus on one thing. The voice of Ben Sasse is missed. Democrat Mark Warner worked with Sasse on the Intelligence Committee.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

He never really thought about things as conservative liberal.

[Donald Trump]

He much more thought about issues as future past.

[Mark Warner]

Somebody who was fearless, passionate Republican John

[Correspondent/Narrator]

Thune of South Dakota is the Senate Majority leader.

[Mark Warner]

Concern not just for today, but for tomorrow and the future. And someone who wasn't distracted by all the noise that goes around us on a daily basis.

[Scott Pelley]

An example of what the Senate should be.

[Mark Warner]

Yes, and hopefully, you know, an inspiration and example that many of us can learn from and follow.

[Ben Sasse]

The Senate needs to be less like Instagram. The Senate needs to be more deliberative, and that means less smackdown nonsense. One of the fundamental mistakes we've made over the last 30 or 40 years is putting cameras everywhere in Washington, D.C. this is not an argument against transparency. We should have reporters around. We should have pen and pad. We should have people recording what's happening. But we should make the Senate less of an institution. That is built as a backdrop platform for people to get sound bites. That's not what the Senate is for. The Senate should be plodding and steady and boring and trustworthy to be too.

[Scott Pelley]

Frank, you were expected to be dead by now.

[Ben Sasse]

That's frank. I like it. Let's be blunt.

[Scott Pelley]

What changed?

[Ben Sasse]

Let's go with Providence, prayer and a miracle drug. In mid December, I was given a three to four month life expectancy. I am on extended time already. I have pancreatic origin cancer that is metastasized a number of places. So I've got lung, vascular, liver or other. Liver's pretty far along.

[Scott Pelley]

You have five cancers?

[Ben Sasse]

Yes, sir.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

He's in a clinical trial for a drug called Duraxon Racid, a new idea in therapy in many cancers. It's a defective gene that signals cells to grow non stop. The drug blocks that signal.

[Ben Sasse]

I have much, much less pain than I had four months ago when I was diagnosed. And I have a massive 76% reduction in tumor volume over the last four months.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

Just this month, the drug maker Revolution Medicines reported that patients who had six months survived a median 13 months.

[Scott Pelley]

You are completely devoted to your faith, what's known as Reformed Christianity or Calvinism. And one of the tenets of that faith is that God ordains everything. And I wonder why you think God has put you to this test.

[Ben Sasse]

Death is wicked. Death is evil. Death is not how it's supposed to be. And me getting a cancer diagnosis again is pretty small on the grand scheme of things. But it's a touch of grace because it forces me to tell the truth. And the lie I want to tell myself is that I'm the center of everything. And I'm going to be around forever and I can work harder and store up enough that I can atone for my own brokenness. I can't. And so I hate cancer. But I'm also grateful for it. I tell a lot more truth to myself than I used to do it when I thought I was super omni competent and interesting.

[Scott Pelley]

He may have to accept the label interesting.

[Correspondent/Narrator]

Ben Sasse has lived life in a hurry with more careers than most and ends with his favorite, a teacher.

[Scott Pelley]

I make no comparison to what you're going through. But there was a moment on 911 at the World Trade center that I knew I was dead. And in that lightning flash of an instant, the only thing that crossed my

[Ben Sasse]

mind

[Scott Pelley]

was leaving my family behind. And I wonder how you reconcile that.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah,

[Ben Sasse]

I'm incredibly blessed. My wife Melissa has. We've been married 31 years. I. We're gonna be apart for a time. But she's tough and gritty and theologically rooted and she's going to be fine. My daughters are 24 and 22 and they're extraordinary. I want to walk them down the aisle when they get married. That's not likely to be. That's not the math of my time card. My son, we have a providential surprise. He's a decade younger than big sisters. He's 14, and he's gonna be fine. He'll have other wise men and women to put a hand on his shoulder. But I'm super bummed to not be there. At 16 and 18 and 20 years old in his life, I want to give him more advice than he wants and I want to put my arm on his shoulder. I want his shoulders to get taller. But it's not a surprise to God.

[Scott Pelley]

And God you believe has a plan?

[Ben Sasse]

Absolutely. There are no maverick molecules in the universe.

[Rosetta Stone Advertiser]

Decentralize a lot more with Ben Sasse and Scott pelley in a CBS News Things that Matter conversation. Watch now on the 60 Minutes YouTube channel, brought to you by bank of America.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

60 Minutes has reported on plenty of high profile crimes before, but nothing like the foul play involving the columba livia domestica. That's not some international crime syndicate. That's the scientific name for pigeons and they're being stolen. We're talking about elite racing pigeons. The finest compete at international events in which they're released far from home and must find their way back. As prizes have risen up into the millions, the birds have become targets for what insiders call the pigeon mafia. The Flemish region of Belgium is a land of medieval towers and fine chocolate. It's also home to some of the most sought after birds on earth. Yep, these guys. What Kentucky is to thoroughbred horses, Belgium is to racing pigeons. And there are few better at breeding a champion than Tom Vongaver. Where some see a bird that looks like it's trying to remember how to breed, Van Gauver sees an elite athlete with a calculating gaze. What makes this pigeon a great racer?

[Tom Vongaver]

Yeah, he has everything a good racer needs to have. But of course, we cannot look in the head. You can have a very smart pigeon, but when the body is not strong enough, his head wants to go home. But the body cannot follow the other.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Van Gover breeds, sells and races his pigeons that events around the world such as this. The weight of his dominance can be seen inside his modest home. But in his pigeon loft out back are his real prizes. Pigeons that can fly hundreds of miles at highway speeds. Feathered Ferraris worth a fortune. How much could you get for all the pigeons out there?

[Tom Vongaver]

I think around $10 million.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

$10 million in pigeons?

[Tom Vongaver]

Yeah. For these 300 sitting here,

[Sharon Alfonsi]

this was his greatest. His name was Finn. In a sport in which pedigree is everything, Finn was the secretariat of the sky. Pigeon breeders, known as fanciers, Traveled across oceans just to take a picture with Finn.

[Tom Vongaver]

People all recognize him because of his color, but, of course, he was a very good racer and, of course, a very good breeder.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Finn was not for sale, but he was a priceless stud. Fanciers paid up to $100,000 for Finn's offspring. And then one night, as Van Gover slept, A nightmare unfolded in his pigeon loft. This surveillance video is from 2024. Finn was in his favorite spot when he was snatched by an intruder.

[Tom Vongaver]

It's like the Mona Lisa from the pigeon sport they stole.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Why the Mona Lisa?

[Tom Vongaver]

Yeah. Because it's famous. Maybe it's old and it's not for. But everybody want to see it.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Six other pigeons were also abducted.

[Tom Vongaver]

The first time, you watch it. And the second time and the third time and then start to look. Who is he?

[Sharon Alfonsi]

The whodunit was among 35 pigeon robberies across Belgium over the last three years. High value racing pigeons have also been stolen in Great Britain, South Africa, and the United States. This tape was from an unsolved caper in 2023 outside Philadelphia. To understand what's behind this avian crime wave and why a member of our species would risk jail time to steal a member of this species, we visited Ryan Zaniken. So what is different about this pigeon than the pigeon I'm going to see in New York defacing a statue?

[Anderson Cooper]

They're bred for the performance. Performance for their racing abilities.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Zoniken is a Canadian fancier who calls himself the pigeon boss. When you're holding a pigeon in your hand, what is it you're looking for?

[Anderson Cooper]

It's got to be like a steel bar. But then it has to be as light as an empty soda can. And the feathers have to be like the most beautiful woman's hair. Soft and silky. That's how it's got to be. And then the eye has to look like you're at Tiffany's.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Look like you're Tiffany's. The pigeon eye.

[Anderson Cooper]

The eye of the pigeon?

[Lemonade Pet Insurance Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

That eye, to the uninitiated, looks more like a panic button. Pigeons don't walk so much as glitch. Their coloring resembles concrete tinged with the Broken rainbow of a parking lot oil slick. And when they take flight, they can make you look like a Disney princess that's hit rock bottom.

[Nora O'Donnell]

Why can't I put this down?

[Anderson Cooper]

They fixed your hair. For you.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

See, Zoniken moved from Canada to Belgium because he loves pigeons, like, a lot.

[Anderson Cooper]

If this was a room of hens, of women, pigeons, females, hens, and you came in here every day and I said, hello. Hi, girls. Hi.

[Donald Trump]

Hi.

[Anderson Cooper]

And I look, I look at her, and she sits up here and I talk to her a little bit, talk a little bit, look at her, and you make eye contact with her just like a girl at the bar.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

The love affair Europe has for pigeon racing began in the 1800s and grew into a working class sport.

[Anderson Cooper]

There's not a feeling like when you sit there on a weekend and wait for your pigeons and you see them come home. It's like, wow, I did this. You're the coach, you're the nutritionist, you're the scout. It's the best.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

But purists have seen the sport change, Change as prize money has soared. It started about 20 years ago with a new kind of competition called one loft racing, in which fanciers from around the world battle for millions of dollars.

[Anderson Cooper]

It's a beautiful idea, but when there's money involved, it's not the same.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

We went to a one loft race in port Portugal to see how it works. Months earlier, fanciers shipped their best young prospects to the race loft so the pigeons could learn to recognize it as their home. The cost to enter a bird is about $500. The more pigeons, the larger the pot of prize money. All racing pigeons are identified by leg bands. Just before the race, each of the 3,300 birds is scanned into a database and then driven 300 miles away to be released. The first pigeon to find their way back into the loft wins. Six hours later, a spotter at the finish blew a whistle to signal the leaders were circling above. The first into the loft got the biggest cuts of the $1.2 million purse.

[Anderson Cooper]

It's crazy. You only see the last 30 seconds of a pigeon race. Isn't it something?

[Sharon Alfonsi]

People refer to it as a sport.

[Anderson Cooper]

It's a sport.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Is it a sport?

[Anderson Cooper]

Sure it is. Is horse racing a sport? It's a sport.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

And as the prizes have climbed, so has the demand for the fastest pigeons.

[Nicholas Hazelbrick]

100,000 is a bit.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

One loft winners are considered blue chip assets. Their DNA is like an ATM sold to Poland, producing descendants that can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ryan Zoniken pays his bills by auctioning Belgian birds online.

[Anderson Cooper]

Take a look.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

It all has an infomercial feel.

[Anderson Cooper]

She's buoyant, she has it all.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

And she's got the look well lubricated with gin and tonic.

[Anderson Cooper]

You can actually see the brains right in them. Just take a good look.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

On this night, the highest bids topped three grand. But that's chicken feed compared to the largest auction player in Belgium. It's called Pigeon paradise, or pipa for short. How many pigeons do you sell a year? And about how much total sales are we talking about?

[Nicholas Hazelbrick]

I think about 40 million euro.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Are you kidding me? Which is like 46 million dollars in pigeon sales a year.

[Nicholas Hazelbrick]

Yeah.

[Donald Trump]

Whoa.

[Nicholas Hazelbrick]

I mean, there is still a big potential.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Nicholas Hazelbrick started pipa when he was 18. About half of the sales go to Chinese buyers who are even more obsessed with with pigeons than the Belgians. In 2020, a Chinese tycoon paid a record $1.8 million for one bird. China has over 400,000 registered pigeon fanciers with five star luxury lofts and races offering as much as $16 million in prizes.

[Nicholas Hazelbrick]

If we don't have China, we'd be very hard to run the business because why? Because they, they make the price

[Sharon Alfonsi]

more. Big spenders have followed from the Middle East. The result, a global arms race for wings. With so much money at stake, the bad guys moved in and began to steal the sport's superstars.

[Anderson Cooper]

They'll have the people come in and look at the pigeons. Somebody who's orchestrating it and then they send other people maybe a week later, a month later, a year later, take them. And normally the time when breeding starts in the end of November, December, January. That's when all the key birds will be paired together. Easy stealing, right?

[Sharon Alfonsi]

We've heard people talking about a pigeon mafia. Is that a thing?

[Anderson Cooper]

Yeah, I think there is. Again, it's money involved.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Fanciers and investigators told us the they believe international gangs are behind smuggling networks that breed the stolen pigeons to sell their offspring on the black market to fanciers anxious to supercharge their bloodlines. This batch, stuffed in socks and hidden in a briefcase, was stopped in December at Latvia's border with Russia. Have you seen crazy security at these laps now?

[Anderson Cooper]

Oh, yeah.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

What have you seen?

[Anderson Cooper]

Oh, multiple cameras, laser beams going across.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

So now panicked fanciers in Belgium are turning to this soft spoken veterinarian to help protect their pigeons.

[Tom Vongaver]

There's some droppings on this. Sure, that can happen.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Reuben Landcreet is a pioneer in genetic testing on pigeons. That's a thing. He maintains a database of over 70,000 birds that stretch back over 10 generations.

[Tom Vongaver]

It has been very important in proving parentage. Father, mother, for sale of pigeons.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

He showed us how he plucks genetic samples from feathers. The idea is his genetic library offers some protection from the pigeon mafia because a stolen pigeon or its offspring could be identified by DNA and make it too risky to sell or race. And that gets us back to Tom Vongover and and his missing masterpiece, Finn. This is the point in the story where you might expect to hear from hard charging detectives who took on the case. But the Belgian Federal police wanted 60 Minutes to agree to what we might ask in an interview, what they might say and what we could report that didn't fly with us. So here's what we learned from sources close to the investigation. Police combed through security camera video, license plate reader data and cell phone records tied to a dozen robberies across Belgium, including Tom von Gauvers. That led to a raid in March 2025 in a Brussels suburb on this yellow house and a Romanian national 1,200 miles away. Romanian cops also searched the homes of some of his relatives. In all, 87 pigeons were found that appeared to be birds stolen from Belgium. The identity rings were gone. So cops turned to Reuben Landkret and his genetic testing. His DNA analysis helped identify 20 of the recovered pigeons, including two of Finn's grandchildren.

[Tom Vongaver]

Pigeon thefts have been happening, but now

[Sharon Alfonsi]

you can solve them, right?

[Tom Vongaver]

With DNA. Yes, that's very good. Now we can close the case.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Well, kind of. Eight co conspirators were convicted, with the mastermind sentenced to 30 months in jail. But he won't reveal what happened to the rest of Tom Vongaver's stolen pigeons, including Finn.

[Tom Vongaver]

Where are the pigeons? Give them back.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

This isn't about the money for you. This is about the pigeon.

[Tom Vongaver]

I want my pigeon back.

[Rosetta Stone Advertiser]

The last minute of 60 minutes.

[Leslie Stahl]

Retired Admiral William McRaven had a remarkable 37 year military career which included commanding America's special operations forces and the mission to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. We ask McRaven to reflect on America and honor.

[Nicholas Hazelbrick]

I've been all over the world and seen men and women from every country exhibit a sense of honor. I witnessed an Iraqi judge who refused to be intimidated by Al Qaeda and an Afghan father who stood up to the Taliban. I see honor everywhere I look. This idea that we must do the right thing even when it's hard. Honor is what makes humanity so very, very worthwhile. But in the American context, honor to me is about upholding the values that were baked into our national DNA. The ideas of liberty, equality, individualism, the rule of law, and religious freedom. Every military officer swears an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and consequently, to maintain our honor. As officers, we must always do right by the Constitution. And even when the consequences might bring our careers to an end, doing the right thing, even when it's hard, will always put you on the right side of history.

[Leslie Stahl]

I'm Leslie Stahl. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Mom, can you tell me a story?

[Rosetta Stone Advertiser]

Sure.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Once upon a time, a mom needed a new car.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Was she brave?

[Carvana Advertiser]

She was tired, mostly. But she went to Carvana.com and found a great car at a great price. No secret treasure map required.

[Donnell]

Did she have to fight a dragon? Nope.

[Carvana Advertiser]

She bought it 100% online from her bed, actually.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Was it scary?

[Carvana Advertiser]

Honey, it was as unscary as car buying could be.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Did the car have a sunroof?

[Carvana Advertiser]

It did, actually.

[Sharon Alfonsi]

Okay, good story.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Car buying. You'll want to tell stories about. Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.