60 Minutes - Sunday, November 3, 2019

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

Before she was deported to Russia, Maria Butina spoke to Lesley Stahl about charges that she sought to influence U.S. policy for the Kremlin. Britain's pending divorce from the European Union has dragged out for over three years. Jon Wertheim interviews the outgoing speaker who tried to maintain order over it all. And Bill Whitaker introduces us to a Utah family with NINE professional cowboys. Those stories on tonight's "60 Minutes."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. Was this young woman a Russian agent planted in the United States? The American government is sure of it. We interviewed Maria Butina in a Florida prison shortly before she was deported back to Moscow. Tell me that there is no racism here against the Russians, oh please. The case against her rests on her own words in private Twitter messages she sent to her contact in Russia. So incognito, patience, cold blood. What is that? Understand Brexit?

Neither did we. But after spending time in the United Kingdom last week, we realized that this is basically the story of a long and messy divorce. Unclear custody arrangements and lots of name-calling. We've lost our minds, basically. It also dawned on us that this wasn't the first time the island had left the continent. A geological Brexit happened thousands of years ago.

This current split is unlikely to end up quite so pretty. Do cowboys still exist? We found generations of them ranching and riding in Utah. The Wright family is the first family of American rodeo. World champions who can make the roughest ride look like a ballet. Are you kind of dancing with a horse? I like to think you are. I dance a lot better with a horse than I do with my wife. I ain't got no rhythm.

I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Scott Pelley. Those stories and more tonight on 60 Minutes. What's your next adventure? Everyone deserves a chance to do what they love.

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Pacific Life is one of the most dependable and experienced insurers in the industry and has been named one of the 2019 World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. The freedom to go after whatever is next for you, that's the power of Pacific. Ask a financial professional about how Pacific Life can help give you the freedom to do what you love, or visit www.pacificlife.com. It's rare that Russian agents come out from the shadows, but tonight you will hear from 30-year-old Maria Butina, who was front-page news when she was charged, not with espionage,

but with acting as an agent of a foreign government and not registering with the U.S. government. A judge in her case said, Butina sought to collect information that could be helpful to the Russian government under the direction of a Russian official at a time when the Russian government was interfering in our electoral process. There was no trial because Butina, who was here on a student visa, cooperated and pled guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent. After serving time in a federal prison, she was just deported back to Moscow.

Maria Butina was arrested on July 15, 2018, portrayed at the time as a sexy covert agent planted by the Putin government to infiltrate the NRA. These are photos of her at NRA events that she posted on her own social media accounts. They're a far cry from the young woman we met while she was still an inmate at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. Hi, Maria. Hello. The dazzle was gone, replaced by resentment and defiance. Her story, she told us, began in Siberia, where she grew up hunting with her dad. After university, she moved to Moscow and said she started a group called the Right to Bear Arms. You were seeking a second amendment for Russia, is that correct? We were trying to get

the changes in Russian law that would allow guns for self-defense. Okay, so you hear that, an American hears that, and they say, come on, Putin is not going to allow people to run around owning guns. Here's the case against you, that you started this organization as a way to infiltrate the NRA here, to meet people as a way in to influence us. That's nonsense. But you did that. You used your organization to meet people in the NRA. The NRA for us has always been an example because there is no more powerful lobbyist gun group in the world than the NRA. Learning from them was an honor. Her introduction to the NRA was facilitated by this man, Alexander Torshin, a Russian official who she has admitted in court papers directed her activities in the U.S.

Butina met him, she says, when he attended one of her gun rights rallies in Moscow. We obtained thousands of private Twitter messages they sent each other over two and a half years. Was he close to Putin? I don't think so. So you wrote him a message and you said you are an influential member of Putin's team. Your words. It doesn't suggest he's close to Putin in any way. In Russia. Was he an influential member of Putin's team? I don't know. Well, you wrote that. You know, in reading through your messages, it reads as if he's your intelligence case officer. Look, this is a, I think it's an American very old saying that suggests that wolves have teeth,

but not all animals with teeth are wolves. You cannot judge a person based on appearance. Her appearance changed after she met Torshin, becoming something of a celebrity, posing glamorously with guns in GQ Russia and on her own Instagram account. Around that time in Moscow, she met with David Keene, the former president of the NRA, and other members like Paul Erickson, who would become Butina's boyfriend. You got to the point where you were staging rallies. You were holding conferences,

or at least one big conference, where you brought the NRA people from the United States over to Moscow. And you're a kid from Siberia. And I'm having trouble knowing how a young person is able to pull this off. That's a great question to ask here in America, because there were times when people didn't believe that women are capable to be leaders at all. That wasn't a sexist question. Because it is. No, no, no. Because I was. I'm saying you're a young person. You're 23 years old. But this is exactly the same. How can one judge me and say, what, I was too smart for my age? I think that is what is praised in America, when a young person takes his or her destiny in his own hands and fights. You traveled across the United States attending NRA meetings. The U.S. government says that you were making connections with Republicans so that you could

influence U.S. policy. And you were doing it slowly, but deliberately. If I were not Russian, that would be called social networking. Have you ever had a case like this? John Demers, the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, whose office helped prosecute Boutina, says what she did wasn't social networking and wasn't on her own initiative. I quoted Butina's lawyer, Bob Driscoll.

Maria is not a spy. She knows of no secret codes. There were no safe houses. In other words, she was completely open and there was no espionage. Her lawyer is right that she didn't get, as far as we know, classified information, right? Right. But that's not what she was doing here. She was an influence agent. She was getting access to Americans who she thought were close to power in America. What was the actual crime? The law she broke was being here, acting as an agent of the Russian government while she was here, and pretending that she wasn't. Is that a law? It's one of the laws that we have to combat foreign influence. What makes her so dangerous

is that the people who she's contacting don't know that she's there taking direction from the Russian government. She first came to the U.S. in 2014 to attend NRA conventions, where she posted photos with prominent Republicans, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum. Her argument is, I'm some spy, you know, Here I am showing myself with these people all over the place. I'm not hiding. She's hiding her true identity. That's her face. But she's not telling them that she's there as an agent of Russia.

This was a photo she didn't post, though we were able to obtain this grainy copy. In one of her private messages to her contact in Moscow, Alexander Torshin, she wrote, are we allowed to publish the photo of Trump Jr. as if they needed to run the decision up to a more senior level? There were other hints of a higher authority when she organized meetings in Moscow in December 2015 between senior NRA members and top Russian officials, including Torshin. When you see this, again, you can get the impression that there's some government person higher than Torshin kind of directing this whole thing, pulling the strings.

But it's all the conspiracy theories. There is no, absolutely no proof of any of that, and I'm not aware of any actions like this. She didn't just attend NRA events. Here she is in the summer of 2015 at a libertarian convention in Las Vegas called Freedom Fest, where she asked then-candidate Donald Trump a question. Do you want to continue the politics of sanctions that are damaging both economies, or you have any other ideas? I don't think you'd need the sanctions.

I think that we would get along very, very well. One of the goals of the Russian government at this point in time was to get rid of those sanctions. It was a major goal. It was also a major goal for every Russian citizen that suffers today from these sanctions. I believe that our countries shall not fight. So you asked about sanctions and not gun rights because you want us to be friends. Absolutely. Not long after, she began helping organize U.S.-Russian friendship dinners. In a document sent to Torshin, she wrote that these dinners will make it possible to exert the speediest and most effective influence on the process of making decisions in the American establishment. That's pretty explicit that you're seeking to influence U.S. policy.

It's pretty explicit that I'm seeking that our two countries establish friendship between each other. And I don't mean governments. I mean people. As the 2016 U.S. election was approaching, she claimed to have success making direct contact with several of Donald Trump's Russian advisers.

And she writes Torshin, We made our bet. I am following our game. Torshin answers, This is the battle for the future. It cannot be lost. Patience and cold blood. A week later, Butina writes, Only incognito. Right now, everything has to be quiet and careful. So incognito, patients, cold blood. What is that? Let me take you back to 2016, around the elections time. Do you remember how at that point American media treated Russia? Everything was toxic.

Tell me that there is no racism here against the Russians, or please, it is. I reminded her that the judge said her crime was a threat to our democratic institutions. And it is very sad for me because it shows how broken the justice system in the United States is. You're saying she's wrong. Absolutely wrong. Because you cannot charge a person with a crime for collecting information with not specifying what information. I've never collected any sensitive or classified information. They're saying you sought to influence our policies. I never sought to influence your policies. I came here on my own because I wanted to learn from the United States and go back to Russia to make Russia better.

The Justice Department taped our interview with Butina, which John Demers listened to. It was a masterpiece of disinformation. It had conflation, obfuscation, changing the subject, accusing you of being sexist, accusing the American people of being racist against Russians whenever the questions got difficult, trying to change the topic, partial denials. So there's no way to look at what she was doing here as being somewhat naive and innocent? I don't think that she's naive or innocent. Less than a week after Donald Trump won the election, Boutina was claiming to her contact, Alexander Torshin,

that she had influence over at least one of the cabinet choices. John Bolton will be Secretary of State 90%, she writes, and continues, Ask our people if they're happy with that. Our opinion will be taken into account. What does that mean? Well, Leslie, Paul told me to write that. Paul Erickson, her former boyfriend and a Republican operative. I hesitated to write that, but I thought it might, you know,

it was a certain way to show off the torsion and say, well, maybe I have a high level context here. Do you think she had influence over who was chosen? I doubt it. I think she intended to have influence over who was chosen. And I think what makes her dangerous is that at the end of the day, we don't know. One of the things she wanted to talk about were the conditions in the Washington, D.C. jail where she was first held. Cockroaches were everywhere, she claimed. No mattresses or blankets.

And... You told me that you found faith. No, God found me. He was always there and helped me to go through all these tough days. That included over a hundred days in solitary confinement. It is a torture. It is not normal for a human being to be locked for 23, 22 hours in cell by your own. Do you really think for not filing a paper, you deserve 18 months of incarceration,

four months in solitary confinement, and all this experience in jail. Is it the way? When she was talking to you in your interview, her audience wasn't the American people. It was Vladimir Putin and all the people in Russia who are going to decide her fate when she goes back there. Are you worried that she's going to go around the country criticizing, you know, how dare the Americans talk about human rights? Look what happened to me. And I have very little doubt that the Russian government will leverage her as an instrument of propaganda to say, here was this poor, young, idealistic Russian student, and look what happened to her. They threw her in jail for 18 months. When she arrived back in Moscow a week ago, she was greeted by a media frenzy,

had a reunion with her dad, and immediately started giving interviews about the conditions of her incarceration. They say that breaking up is hard to do. It's one thing to declare I'm out of here. It's something else entirely to disentangle finances and come up with custody arrangements. If divorce between two people is seldom tidy, imagine the complications when the split is effectively between a country and a continent. The United Kingdom is learning this the hard way. British voters decided to exit or Brexit the European Union, ending a long marriage. That was in June of 2016. More than three years later, you might say that the UK is still sleeping on the couch. This past Thursday, the deadline to leave passed

without resolution. Yet there is a certain uniquely British theatricality to Brexit, a mix of colorful characters, conflicts, threats, promises, but still no clear exit strategy. Order! Order! He may demand it, but order has been in short supply lately at the Palace of Westminster. Be a good boy, young man! Be a good boy! Thought partisan politics was an exclusively American issue? Take a look at the mother of parliaments. I have to say, Mr. Speaker, I've never heard such humbug in all my life.

You'd be forgiven for thinking you'd walked into a street fight with considerably nicer upholstery. This prime minister to talk about morals and morality is a disgrace! Order! It falls to the Speaker, John Bercow, to preside. Calm! Unlike Nancy Pelosi, this Speaker doesn't usually vote. It falls to the Speaker, John Bercow, to preside. Unlike Nancy Pelosi, this Speaker doesn't usually vote. His job, keeping, well, order. In theory, anyway.

No, I order! Can we get you a gavel? They make those. Would that make your job easier? I'm not sure it would, and it's very un-British to have a gavel in the chamber. Although there is a general requirement of brevity, most people, doubtless myself included, think that we are being briefer than we are, and most people are in favour of brevity as long as it is someone else's.

The dividing lines, the United Kingdom's decision to exit the European Union, the 28-country political and trading bloc. This issue has not only engulfed the doorsteps of parliament, but the country as a whole. Brexit will impact every bit of the economy, from roaming charges to auto parts, from cattle to cod. Paul Joy, whose family has been fishing for centuries, cannot wait to leave the European Union and its limits on his catch. It's as bad as we've ever seen. It's been decimated over a period of time.

I can remember the days fishing when we just had to go out there and fish. And there was no such thing as quotas. We had abundant fish stocks before we entered Europe. To understand the current scrap over Brexit, it helps to understand an ancient dispute, the Battle of Hastings, which certainly isn't lost on these guys who reenacted every year. In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold. And the Norman conquest changed England forever, becoming an important plot point in Britain's complicated relationship with Europe.

You're talking to a fool, sir. I'm not a great political theorizer or a historian. In the great tradition of Shakespeare, the fool knows of whence he speaks. As long as there has been an England, there has been an opinion upon Europe. On a clear day, you can look out across the English Channel here and see the French port of Calais, only 20 miles away. But if you really want a sense of just how close the United Kingdom sits to mainland Europe,

consider these sheer magnificent white cliffs of Dover. They represent the original split between this country and that continent, hard proof that the United Kingdom and Europe were once quite literally attached. This geological Brexit came tens of thousands of years ago during an ice age. Since then, the cliffs serve as a fortress protecting against invasion and also served as a reminder that this is truly an island. This ambivalence toward Europe here, what do you attribute that to? The ambivalence towards continental Europe in Britain is very, very deep-rooted and very long-standing indeed.

Matthew Parris was a Conservative member of Parliament in the 1980s. For the last 20 years, he's been a columnist for the Times of London. I mean, I could go back to Elizabeth I, the Spanish Armada. I could go back to Catholicism, the Catholic plots, Henry VIII. I could go back to the First World War, the Second World War. It was after the Second World War that Winston Churchill encouraged the creation of a European bloc, so as never to repeat the horrors of the first half of the 20th century. Called it may be the United States of Europe.

In 1973, Britain joined what became known as the European Union, a single market with no customs, no tariffs, and effectively no borders. It's a trading treasure, says Gina Miller, a prominent London businesswoman. You're saying the same way food and cars and medicine goes from Kansas to Missouri, that's the kind of seamless relationship you have with 27 other countries. It is. And we have, you know, if you look at that whole population, we have a market on our doorstep of over half a billion people. The combined population of the EU member states. And people too, right? Poles can come here to work and Brits can go to Paris and Berlin. Yeah, we've had freedom of movement has been really crucial to our economy

because we've been able to plug the gap when it's come to certain skills. Unified countries in Europe can compete with the U.S. and China. But this borderless Britain so appealing to Miller is precisely what enrages the so-called Brexiteers, such as Nigel Farage, an aggressively polarising figure nicknamed the godfather of Brexit. For years, you've had a slogan, I want my country back. Where did it go and where do you want it to go? Well, you know, if you have foreign judges, if you have foreign parliaments, if EU law is superior to your law, and you can't even control your own borders, you can't even catch your own borders, you can't even catch your own fish in your territorial waters. It's not, you know, you're not a country.

By posing in front of a billboard featuring Middle East migrants, Farage played on fears of mass immigration, inflaming tensions. And his campaign to leave Europe picked up traction with more mainstream politicians. By the summer of 2016, British membership of the EU was put to a referendum. Let's stop downing Street Boris. Enter Boris Johnson's stage right. Reliably rumpled and strenuously self-parodying, Johnson was ending his tenure as London's mayor

and seeking to feed his national political ambitions. Brexit provided nourishment. Can we go forward to victory on June 23rd? Yes, we can! Johnson became the front man for British citizens nostalgic for empire and feeling left behind in a changing world. I think the Brexit people knew very well what they were playing to. They adopted a very effective slogan quite early on, which was take back control, and it was devilishly effective.

We're regaining what was once rightfully ours. Make America great again. A result that surprised even Johnson, the vote passed 52% to 48 in favor of leave. The British people have spoken and the answer is we're out. Thank you very much. So it was the door to 10 Downing Street became the revolving variety. The Prime Minister David Cameron resigned over the Brexit result.

Theresa May came in only to resign herself when she couldn't get Brexit done. She was replaced by Boris Johnson last July. Brexit brought delays and uncertainty and grim projections that the British economy would shrink significantly as a result of leaving. Acting as a private citizen fed up with it all, Gina Miller demanded that Parliament have a voice on such a critical issue. So she filed a lawsuit. You took the government to the Supreme Court, the highest court in this country, not once but twice. You are a busy woman. Why did you undertake this? It sounds maybe a

flippant thing to say, but nobody else was going to do it. And I'm sorry, you have to consult and debate with Parliament before we leave the EU. Miller won her cases, pushing Parliament to centre stage, which in turn helped mint an unlikely star in the never-ending Brexit caper. Let me say to people bellowing from a sedentary position, stop it. John Bercow, Speaker of Parliament. The House must calm itself. Zen, restraint, patience. For centuries, the Speaker has been a neutral arbiter pinned to the sidelines. Not this Speaker.

Consistently ruling against the Brexiteers, he's put himself squarely in the centre of the action. His supporters say that he has modernised the role. Brexiteers say Bercow oversteps, as though the referee has suddenly become the captain of the opposing team. It is becoming remarkable how often you please one lot and not the other lot. What I say about that is that you should always view with some suspicion and reserve people who, when they're losing or think that they're getting a rough deal, moan about the referee.

And I think these moaning minis ought to cease moaning. But do they bother me? Do I lose sleep? Am I going to find that my hair turns even whiter as a result of the rancorous demonstrations of discontent by some of these characters. Now, I couldn't give a flying flamingo about their protests. This parliament is as dead as dead can be. So is the Attorney General.

Yes, well, he's entitled to his view, but he suffers from the notable disadvantage of being wrong. Bercow may have emerged as a most unlikely cult figure, but he has leaned in to his celebrity. John, welcome to the State Department's of Speakers' House. Moments after a critical session last week, he invited us to his modest apartment deep inside the Palace of Westminster, surrounded by ghosts of Speakers' past. Now here we come into what is called the corner room. And for a man once slurred by a government minister as a, quote, sanctimonious dwarf, Bercow, rather gamely, was quick to bring up the topic of his height. I'm not the shortest speaker in UK history.

Three predecessors, he insists, were smaller. And then he delivers the punchline. Although I do have to admit that this was true only after all three of them had been beheaded. They'd all their heads cut off, so they lost six inches. That's right. After 10 years in office, Speaker Bercow retired this week with his head intact, if only barely. As for Boris Johnson, he long promised that Brexit would happen by October 31st, vowing that he would rather be found dead in a ditch than face another delay. There will be no further pointless delay.

Guess what? October 31st has come and gone. A new election has been called for next month, And the UK remains in Brexit limbo. What does that say about the state of the UK right now? I think we've lost our minds, basically. Lost your minds. I mean, on the world stage, we were seen as being pragmatic, sensible, stiff upper lip, soft power. We're the people who do that. So we have damaged our reputation on the world stage. It seems so off-brand for this country.

It is completely off-brand, but I think it's a moment of madness. To paraphrase a Brexit tabloid headline I saw today, what the hell happens now? What the hell happens now? Well, the truth of the matter is I don't know. And I think anybody who predicts with alacrity the outcome of the Brexit saga is either an extraordinarily sophisticated person or a rank fool. Rodeo might just be America's original pastime. It started with an event called Saddlebronk in the Old West. Today, there's one name that dominates Saddle Bronc,

the Wrights. There are nine members of the Wright family riding the circuit, and they rank among the best in the world. In a sport with plenty of wannabe cowboys, as you'll see and hear, the Wrights are the real deal, vestiges of the American frontier. Their lifestyle has prepared them for what's been called one of the last blue-collar sports in America. In Saddle Bronc, there are no Tom Brady salaries, and there are regular injuries that would make running backs flinch. And yet none of that discourages the rights. Each generation seems to be better than the last. Tonight, we'll introduce you to America's first family of rodeo, competing for glory on horseback the right way. Anybody heard of the rights in the bronc riding? You may not have heard of the rights before. They

are a Utah sensation. But at rodeos big and small across the country, like this one in Utah, that last name is as famous as Manning or Montana. And there are just about enough Wrights to field their own football team. It is the Wright night at the rodeo. Nine professional cowboys with five world titles among them. There's Ryder Wright. Ryder! Come on, Ryder! The youngest world champion of all time, and at 21, currently sitting in first place. Hey, we've been watching all of the Wrights.

His uncle is this guy. Spencer Wright, another world champion. And in a league of his own, Cody Wright, the one who started the family dynasty 20 years ago. At 42, Cody's a two-time world champion and one of the best bronc riders ever. What's that feel like? Adrenaline, a little bit of fear, and you've got to learn how to control it. Otherwise, it would go to heck pretty quick. Here's Stetson, right?

In saddle bronc, the goal is to hang on with style for eight seconds to a horse specially bred to buck you off. Can you explain to us what's going on in that eight seconds? You've got a rein you hang on to. You need to lift on it because that's what holds you down in the saddle. When they jump and kick, you know, they're stretched out. Their feet are off the ground. You want to be stretched out, you know, your free arms straight back, and your feet set as high in the neck as you can get them. It's like one hell of a rocking horse.

It can be the roughest ride in the world if you're out of time, or it can be the smoothest ride in the world. So are you kind of dancing with the horse? I like to think you are. I dance a lot better with a horse than I do with my wife. I ain't got no rhythm. The Wrights and the Broncos they're randomly paired with are partners in the rodeo. Both have to perform well to get a good score from the judges. When it's go time the Wrights, the sons and brothers, crowd around the chute like a NASCAR pit crew, helping each other saddle up. This is a team sport for you guys. I think so. I love it. There's nobody I'd rather see do better, but don't think that I ain't trying to beat them. We all show up to the rodeo wanting to win first, but we're going to help each other do it too. That's Jake Wright, Cody's younger brother and one of his toughest competitors.

And yes, there are more brothers. Jake's twin, Jesse, a brother-in-law, Coburn Bradshaw, plus Alex, Calvin, Stuart, and Spencer Wright. We're like a big support group. You know, there's 10 of the best bronc riders in the world right here. We all get together and practice. Is everybody focused? And I know that's why we all have been so successful at what we do. All that practice has propelled them to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. It's the Cowboy Super Bowl. Spencer Wright, he's got a great ride going. And Team Wright has made it every year for the last decade and a half. Cody has won the champion's gold buckle twice. He showed us that we could do it with a little hard work and a lot of try. If he would have never even pursued rodeo, I wonder what the rest of us would even be doing.

What they're doing comes at a steep cost. While these horses are rarely injured, that can't be said for the rights. They all have the same orthopedic surgeon on speed dial. Can I see a show of hands of how many of you have been injured? So all of you have been injured. And two of you came into this interview on crutches three of us tell me some of the injuries i think the worst was my back when i broke my back in omaha fractured my skull i broke my nose about 10 times i broke all the sinuses and on this right side of my face one time i had a brain bleed as far injuries go, I think I'm one of the lucky ones sitting here.

Do you hear yourself? Brain bleed. Can you call that lucky? Hurts a lot less than heartache, Bill. But heartache won't land you in the hospital. The Wright boys are well aware every ride could be their last. Stewart came close. I said, let's go, and horse reared up and hit my head, kind of knocked me a little senseless, and I fell off into the arena. He just jumped straight up and fell completely on me. I thought it broke my back because I just felt my ribs pop as he landed on me. And I was like, oh my gosh.

As awful as that may sound, the Wrights say the hardest part of the job is being away from home. What did they tell Alex last time he went to the doctor? They're on the road around 250 days a year, clocking 100,000 miles in these, what they call rodeo motels. This weekend you're going to Harrington and Fort Pierre or vice versa. Where they eat, sleep and drive from Canada to the Mexican border, chasing eight-second dreams. Do you sometimes feel like you're on the road more times than you're on a horse? You drive 22, 24 hours from home to there, and we're there an hour and turn around and drive them back. We drive for a living, ride bucking horses for fun.

When they aren't on the road, home is southern Utah. They mostly grew up in Milford, a no-stoplight town where the rights are the main attraction. They're a family of 13 kids, kept in line by their parents, Bill and Evelyn. That's a huge family. It's a good-sized family. Kids are kind of moorish, you know. The more you get, the more you want.

She trained the older ones to help the younger ones. I had to organize them. I'm like, I cannot do this on my own, or else it's going to be bad. Because mom's going to grow bear hair, and you're not going to like it. All right, quit it. The Wright kids were cowboys playing cowboys, and were natural ranch hands. It kept them out of Evelyn's hair and out of trouble. The seven boys and six girls knew how to ride a horse before they could pedal a bike. Some of the girls rodeoed too, but never went pro. They learned how to break horses early,

how to ride and tame horses and train them. I think you have to be a cowboy before you can be a rodeo cowboy. The ranch was their training ground. The family has been working this land at the edge of Zion National Park for more than a century and a half. I'm five generations. Cody's six and Rusty's seven and his boy is eight generations. Bill, do you think the Wright family will be ranching this land in another 150 years? Well, I hope so. I really do. When you work as hard on something as I have at this, you don't want to see it just go away. What keeps their way of life going are rituals like this. Branding day.

Bill and his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren gather every year to round up, vaccinate, and brand their cattle. The hard work brings them together. It defines them on the ranch and in the arena. Dad's the first one to preach that you get out of what you put into it, and if he's seen you putting something into it, they were both behind you, and it didn't matter if they had to sell the farm, they was going to get you there. They sacrifice a lot for you to reach your dream. I think so. This cowboy gets emotional because he knows exactly how much his parents gave up

when he was starting out in a family where money was tight. We went to Gillette, Wyoming to the national finals and I had like 10 kids. He comes back from the expo and he said, I bought Cody a saddle. I'm like, what? It was only $1,100. I'm like, what? You did what? I started crying. He's like, we got to help him. We got to support him. He's going to lose his dream if we don't. What do you say to that? Well, thanks for coming. These days, Cody may be living his dream, but it hasn't exactly made him rich, considering cowboys have to foot the bill for just about everything. I really like rodeos. If you're rodeoing full-time and going to, you

know, 100 rodeos, you've got to make over $60,000 or $70,000 just to break even. So you could go through all this and go to a rodeo and walk away with nothing. Yeah, you could walk away in the red. Less than nothing. Less than nothing. So surely there are easier ways to make a living. You'd think so. But better? I don't know. Still, the sport has taken a toll on Cody's body and his family. He's spending less time in the arena now and more time on the ranch. And in the practice pen, leading the next generation to carry on the right legacy. Son's rider, Rusty, Stetson, who are already rising stars, and the youngest, Statler.

We were there the day Cody coached his 16-year-old on his very first bronc ride. Statler, right there, lift hard and take a hold of him. Well, I was like super nervous until I got in there, and then I just pretty much forgot about everything else but what my dad's taught me. Come on! Come on! Keep going, buddy. That ride, how'd that feel i hurt my butt actually a lot but as soon as i hit the ground i wanted to do it again one hall of famer told us that you guys have the potential to be the best there ever was

i think we could do it but really that's kind of humbling. Humbling and he likes fire. A fire, they say, to win those gold buckles just like their dad, Cody. You know, I wanted a gold buckle, but to ride every horse the best I could was always what did it for me you know sure I want money who don't you need it to go along but I always just wanted to ride Bronx it was striving to make that perfect ride and you know the the feeling that you feel when you're in time with a horse that's trying to get you off your back as hard as they can. Have you ever had a perfect ride? No, I've never had a perfect ride. When I make that perfect ride, I'm going to be done.

In the mail this week, we heard from viewers about our interview with former vice president and presidential candidate Joe Biden. Many had this criticism. When did 60 Minutes start running political ads for Democrats disguised as interviews? But about half the viewers who wrote saw the same interview very differently. Absolutely awful. Wasn't sure whether it was an interview with Joe Biden or a campaign ad for Donald Trump. I'm Leslie Stahl. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.