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Texas Expecting Heaviest Winter Weather Today; College Board Unveils Framework for AP African American Studies; Michael Cohen Hands over Cell Phones; FBI Searches Biden's Beach Home; Missing Radioactive Capsule Found. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 01, 2023 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Right now parts of Texas are getting hit with heavy freezing rain. This is Texas, mind you. It is round three of icy weather that's already killed, sadly, at least two people in the state. Texas officials say travel will be nearly impossible through tonight.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, this video from Oklahoma, take a look at this, it shows just how dangerous the roads can get.

SCIUTTO: Whoa!

GOLODRYGA: A state trooper's dash camera captured a semi-truck driver losing control. Now, thankfully, no one was hurt in that video. More than 248,000 people are now without power across the state of Texas. And nationwide more than 1,900 flights have been canceled.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

And, Ed, you and I are both from Texas.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: This is not weather that people there are used to. What are conditions like right now?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, an old colleague of mine once said the reason they live in Texas is because winter lasts three minutes here. And this has clearly gone way beyond that.

So, this is a situation where really you look at the map and - and the - the weather map right now and you look at the vast expanse of this wintry mix and the freezing rain, sleet, it goes from far west Texas, out in Big Bend, all the way into east Texas as well.

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So, it's a rather dynamic system that is moving through the state. And somehow the Dallas-Fort Worth area is kind of snuggled in this pocket right now where for the last several hours it's been relatively dry. But all indications are that that will continue to change in the afternoon hours.

And here at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, we've seen some planes taking off, but it is a fraction of the flights that normally take off from this very busy airport. Hundreds of flights already canceled throughout the day. There were some 2,000 flights canceled yesterday. That is expected to continue into today.

So, depending on how rough this next round or this latest round of wintry mix falls on this day will, I think, kind of determine just how long it will take to come out of all of this. But when I drove out here to DFW International Airport this morning, it's a drive that usually takes me 30 minutes. It took well over an hour this morning.

Bianna and Jim.

SCIUTTO: Ed, we're buying you a hat. Bianna and I are going to buy one, send it to you, and force it on your head in this weather.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and hopefully more Texas -

LAVANDERA: I have one, I'm just stubborn about it.

SCIUTTO: OK.

GOLODRYGA: It's the Texans stubbornness, right? You never expect it to last more than three minutes. Well, there it is. Ed, put the hat on.

LAVANDERA: I'm not putting it on until it starts coming down. The very last minute

SCIUTTO: OK.

GOLODRYGA: OK.

All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thanks, man.

GOLODRYGA: This morning, the college board has released the official framework for an advanced placement course on African American studies that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had earlier denounced and banned from the state's classrooms. He had claimed the course imposed a, quote, political agenda.

SCIUTTO: Now the government says he intends to ban state universities from spending any money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, known as DEI.

CNN's Leyla Santiago live from Miami with more specifically on the framework for this AP African American course.

I wonder, Leyla, can you explain that to us and perhaps explain to people what the governor is attempting to portray here as biased or political.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, so let's go over this - this official framework over this advanced placement course on African American studies, just released in the last hour. It's about 230 pages. I have read through it. Want to go over what's in it and what is not in it.

And what is not in it in terms of requirements are much of the objections that the state mentioned last month in a letter to the college board, the non-profit that oversees AP courses in the U.S. as its objections for rejecting the course in the state of Florida. They have looked at an initial proposal dating back a year ago, not the official coursework that came out today.

Let's just review what their objections were when they listed them off. The Department of Education saying they were concerned about unit four, which included studies, black queer studies, the movement of black lives, black feminist literacy thoughts, reparation, listing concerns tied to the readings and the authors mentioned with those units. None of those authors are mentioned in the official coursework that came out today.

Now, I will say, what is mentioned, but not required, they have a list of Black Lives Matter, origins, impacts and critics. Also mentioned, reparations debates in the U.S. and the Americas, queer life and expression in black communities.

But I want to put how it's mentioned in context, which it is mentioned, sort of listed, as some of the topics that students can consider for their research projects in this course. And that same list they also mention black conservatism, the role of religion in African American resistance to enslavement. So, it's a pretty broad list. So, these things are mentioned in this curriculum, but I want to leave it in context, it is mentioned as a suggestion as to what students can choose to research.

Jim. Bianna.

SCIUTTO: Leyla, let me ask you a question here because the reparations debate or Black Lives Matter, I mean these are real things that happened. I mean his argument seems to be, it's stating these things as fact as opposed to matters of discussion, right? What does the actual curriculum - does the curriculum tell people that reparations are correct or mention it as a movement as part of the broader course?

SANTIAGO: You know, it's interesting, I actually had a conversation with one of those authors, no long a scholar, no longer mentioned in there, and he pointed out, he said, yes, these things are in there, but nowhere does it say that students cannot be critical of these discussions.

So, you know, much of this, the Department of Education is saying, is against state law.

[09:40:00] Context here too, remember, Florida, last year, passed the Stop WOKE Act, which basically says a student in the classroom cannot be made to believe that he or she should bear any sort of personal responsibility -

SCIUTTO: Right.

SANTIAGO: Or feel any sort of guilt because of actions committed in the past by the same race. And so that is what the Department of Education is looking at through the lens of their objections here.

SCIUTTO: Leyla Santiago, thanks so much.

Well, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is now getting some help in its investigation from President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen. What he handed over that could help prosecutors into their investigation into Trump's role in hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels.

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SCIUTTO: New this morning, Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, tells CNN he has handed over his cell phones to Manhattan prosecutors. This part of their ongoing probe into the Trump Organization's involvement in hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Kara Scannell joins us now.

So, Kara, we know that a grand jury has been convened to go over a case similar to this. So, what do we know specifically here in New York?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, I mean, we remember this investigation began in 2019. And it started with the hush money payments. Then it went looking into the financial statements. And in the past several months, the focus has returned to the hush money payments.

And what we've really seen is this start to accelerate in just the past few weeks. Michael Cohen went in and met with prosecutors two weeks ago. As he said, they asked for his phone. And he said in the interview this morning that they wanted the recordings that he had on his phone with Stormy Daniels' attorney, Keith Davidson.

Now, he's someone that the prosecutors have also recently reached out to sources tell me as someone that they want to talk to again.

Also this week David Pecker, who is the former publisher of "The National Enquirer," they were involved in these catch and kill deals. He was in talking to prosecutors. So, we're seeing this pick up. We know from sources that the grand jury is going to hear from some other witnesses in the near future. So really starting to see them narrow down on the evidence and bringing it in before a jury. SCIUTTO: Kara, we know the former president has been critical in the

past in public of people who take the Fifth Amendment, but you obtained footage of Trump pleading the Fifth more than 400 times during a deposition with the New York Attorney General's Office. I just want to have a listen for our viewers' sake and get your thoughts.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I decline to answer the question.

Same answer.

Same answer.

Same answer.

Same answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: This pertains, we should note, to a civil investigation into the Trump Organization's business practices.

What more did you find here?

SCANNELL: Well, Jim, as we see on that tape, he meets with the New York Attorney General's Office. What you can't see is that she is there as well. And at the beginning of interview she greets him. And as he begins to give his statement about why he's not going to answer these questions and why he will assert the Fifth Amendment, he starts quoting back to her some of the statements she has made while she's out on the campaign trail. A really unusual, kind of awkward moment where he is confronting her with her own lines.

Then the interview continues and then he refuses to answer questions, you know, more than 400 times. One month later, she files this $250 million lawsuit against the former president, his three eldest children and the company. And that litigation is ongoing.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, I recall Trump saying once upon a time that only guilty people take the Fifth.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Here we are.

Kara Scannell, thank you.

SCIUTTO: All right, this breaking news just into CNN.

CNN has confirmed that the FBI has searched the Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home of President Biden just this morning.

CNN's Paula Reid is following the latest on this.

Paula, what do we know and do we know why another search there?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, this was very much expected. Now that this is under a special counsel investigation, it was anticipated that the FBI and investigators would likely go back to places that had already been searched by the president's personal attorneys and do their own searches. We saw this, of course, about ten days ago when the FBI did its own search, a nearly 13-hour search, of the president's Wilmington home, where additional classified material was uncovered. So, it was very much expected that they could potentially also go to the Rehoboth home that had previously been searched by the president's attorneys.

Now, it's not clear how early this search began today, but what appeared to be government vehicles were spotted by pool cameras. And now we just got this statement from the president's personal attorney confirming that investigators are on the scene .This is being done with the consent of the president's attorneys. And what will be really significant today, Jim, is whether they find any additional classified material.

We know investigators are still combing through what they took from the Wilmington house ten days ago. So big question here is will additional classified materials be found. Previously when the president's attorneys searched this Rehoboth home, they said they did not find any classified materials. So that will be the big question today, what do they find?

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And this marks what we believe is the third known search by federal agents of a property belonging to the former president regarding classified material.

Paula Reid, thank you so much.

MJ Lee, I want to turn to you now and get reaction from the White House. We have that statement from Bob Bauer. What else are you hearing?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, I think what is really notable from the statement that just came out from Bob Bauer, the president's personal lawyer who is taking the lead on the classified document situation, is, again, the White House -- the lawyer stressing cooperation, right, indicating that this search is being done because there is cooperation between the president's team and the DOJ.

[09:49:56]

And this has sort of been the White House's theory of the case all along, if you can call it a strategy, that at every point they have wanted to stress to the public that everything that we are doing and have been doing from day one, going back to early November when the first tranche of classified documents were found, is that we have informed the right people, including the archives, who then in turn, of course, informed the DOJ. And that there's nothing that we are doing to sort of stand in the way of the DOJ now taking all of the actions that it needs to take to find out whether there are more classified documents.

Now, as Paula laid out, there was very much expected that there could be more searches coming. And what we don't know for sure, of course, is whether there could be additional searches coming after today. And certainly we can actually expect that there very much could be more searches coming at other locations. We just don't know for sure.

And I think it is also just worth emphasizing right now just how tight lipped and careful this White House has been in talking about this situation. You know, you talk to folks in the communications office and other White House officials, they are just not commenting on this matter at all. They are deferring to the lawyers and saying, look, when they have something to share and they feel like they can share something, they will go ahead and do that. But any other information that is shared by the White House otherwise would basically get in the way of an ongoing DOJ investigation.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LEE: And that is why the search is happening right now. And we've basically gotten a pretty short confirmation that a search is ongoing, but really nothing more beyond that, right?

GOLODRYGA: Yes, this appears to be the first search since a special counsel has been appointed. Obviously, the president's attorney said that they've indeed had searched that home themselves and found no classified documents at that time. So this search, they say, is expected now with the appointment of a special counsel.

Paula Reid, MJ Lee, thank you.

And, of course, we'll have much more on this breaking story at the top of the hour. Stay with us.

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GOLODRYGA: Well, now to the story we've been teasing this hour. A radioactive needle in a haystack has been found after a massive six- day search in remote Australia. Authorities located this tiny capsule containing highly radioactive material after it went missing from the back of a mining truck.

SCIUTTO: Officials then alerted residents to a quote, radioactive spill in that area before launching just a monumental search.

CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now with more details.

All right, so this capsule is tiny. I mean it's way enlarged on that screen there. I wonder, how were authorities able to track this down.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think they would say they were lucky. Imagine it you see this shiny little thing, no bigger than the tip of your finger, on the side of the road. Might you pick it up. Might you put it in your pocket? Yes, you might. And it really is tiny. That's how big it is compared to a dime. It's twice as big. A Coke can, much bigger than all of that.

And you know where they had to look for this. This had been packed up on January 10th way up here at this mining site to be transferred down to Perth, the city of about 2 million people. It's about a 900-mile road here. They didn't open the package - the truck up down here until the 25th. So, for 15 days this thing was simply missing. They didn't know where it was.

So, they started looking. Real focused down here. Worried that it had wedged in the tire tread of a car or something and been carried into a neighborhood because this thing gives off radioactivity. It's used in mining to measure thicknesses of walls. Kind of like an x-ray might be, or thickness in density of material. It helps them know what's buried in rock.

Take them to your home, though, very serious health issues. Could very quickly come to mind.

How did they find it up here? They were driving a truck along at about 45 miles an hour when suddenly they got a ping. It had a detector on there and they found it about two meters off the road.

Now, they sealed off the whole area. I know this area a little bit. It's very, very remote. It's very, very sparse out there. They've sealed it off and they've - they're conducting a huge investigation to say, how did you lose track of this thing to begin with.

SCIUTTO: Wow. That's some good work to their credit.

Tom Foreman, thanks for breaking it all down.

FOREMAN: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: Our top story now, we are following breaking news, as the FBI has conducted a new, but apparently expected search of President Biden's home in Rehoboth, Delaware. We're going to have more on that move. The search now complete. And new video. That's coming up.

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