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Framework Unveiled For AP African American Studies Course That DeSantis Said "Lacks Educational Value"; Tom Brady Says He's Retiring "For Good" This Time; Another Round Of Ice & Winter Weather Pounds The South; Study: Dirtier Air Raises Risk Of Depression, Anxiety; FBI Searches Biden's Home In DE For Any Classified Docs. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 01, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:30:57]

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed it while educators defended it and today, the College Board unveiled its official framework for an AP African American Studies course designed to be taught to high schoolers. And there were a number of changes made from the original design.

CNN's Leyla Santiago is in Miami. Leyla, walk us through what it was exactly that DeSantis said was so controversial. And ultimately, what did the board decided to do?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, so let's walk through what the coursework says today because remember, this is the official framework for the course for the African American Studies. What the state rejected and took objection with was a framework, a proposed framework that was created in February of last year.

As it stands right now, the official coursework does not include many of the works and authors that the administration took issue with out of one unit, particularly Unit 4. So let me remind you what the objections were. Remember, the Florida Department of Education said that it took issue with the inclusion of black queer studies, the movement for black lives, black feminist literary thoughts, the reparation movements, those topics are no longer listed in that same unit.

But some of them are still mentioned in this curriculum. They are mentioned as options for students to be able to research and consider researching for the project related to this course. Also, on that list of things to possibly research, let's go through that list. It lists several things including Black Lives Matter, origins, impacts and critics, reparations debates, queer life and expression in black communities, as well as black conservatism, the development in ideology.

They even have the role of religion in African American resistance to enslavement. So there are changes that have been made to this course. Governor Ron DeSantis was just asked about it in a press conference about an hour ago, and he said that they are still reviewing that. Department of Education also saying that they will let us know if they think that this complies with the law, because let's back up to what the law is here in Florida.

Remember, last year, they passed a law, it's known as the Stop Woke Act, that basically says that a student cannot be made to feel that they are personally responsible, they should not feel any guilt or distress or anguish based off of the actions, the prior actions committed by someone of their race. So that law is sort of central to what Florida we'll be looking at.

I got to tell you, Kasie, I also talked to the co-chair for the development of this course. And he said, look, revisions to this were always part of the plan. They take into consideration feedback from students and teachers and experts, historians that are engaged in the pilot program, but this, he says, has nothing to do with the politicians and what the state of Florida is objecting to, Kasie.

HUNT: All right, we'll see about that. Leyla Santiago, thanks very much for that reporting.

Let's continue our conversation about this now with Nikki Haley -- or excuse me -- Nikki Taylor, who is the Department Chair and Professor of History at Howard University. Professor Taylor, thank you so much for being here with us today. I mean, let's just start with the big picture here. I mean, clearly, the college board made some adjustments. They decided not to require that certain subjects Black Lives Matter reparations be studied instead, making them optional. Why do you think they did that?

PROF. NIKKI TAYLOR, HISTORY DEPARTMENT CHAIR, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: Thank you, Kasie, for having me, and especially on the first day of Black History Month. It is very unfortunate that we must discuss these changes on this day in particular. But I am not sure, I wasn't in the room when the College Board decided to make those changes.

And I truly hope that they were intellectual reasons that they decided to make those changes because I believe that no educator especially not college education and college educators should ever bow down to political pressure.

[13:35:14]

And the idea that politicians or one governor of one state could dare tell us what content and what curriculum is important for African American Studies is just mind blowing to me, Kasie.

HUNT: So you have said that this curriculum is a good idea, quote, unquote. There are critics who look at it and say, they'll use language. And, you know, we've heard DeSantis talk about how Florida is the place where woke goes to die. How do you respond to those critics?

TAYLOR: First of all, I'm an intellectual as are the people who design the curriculum. I did not design the curriculum, but I have full confidence in the people I know who were a part of it. So there -- that's the first point. The second point is that we're always going to find things that we don't like in a particular topic.

American history, for example, you know, we unfortunately have to teach about the Ku Klux Klan, you know. So are we not supposed to teach about these things that actually happened in American history just because people don't like it? To be honest, you have to be honest to the history as an intellectual.

So it's very anti-intellectual for anybody to try to erase certain parts of black studies, black culture, black history, because they particularly don't like it or think it's controversial to them. There's a whole segment of our community that identify as black queer. And moreover, the reparations movement and the Black Lives Matter Matter movement are important social movements in African American life and culture, important social movements that have made important strides.

So the idea that one person with a lot of power on a platform can be this critical of this particular AP exam, I did not hear about him criticizing the European history exam, or even the Japanese language, culture -- and culture exam. Just this one. It's really interesting, Kasie.

HUNT: All right, Professor Nikki Taylor, thank you so much for coming on with us to provide some perspective on this.

TAYLOR: Thank you.

HUNT: We really appreciate it.

Coming up next, bye-bye Brady? The NFL icon claims he's calling it quits for real this time, wrapping up what may be the greatest career of any quarterback, although, you know, we've really been here -- we've been here before. But we'll have the details again just ahead.

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[13:42:22]

HUNT: Tributes are flooding in again for Tom Brady. After the NFL legend says he's retiring for good again. Bands as well as former teammates and even opponents took to Twitter to gush over the man widely considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time.

Again, CNN's Coy Wire joins us. Coy, I covered this once already. I sat here in a chair and looked, watch video of him. I remember him throwing the trophy over from one boat to another. This season was not nearly as good as, you know, the last chance that he had to do this. Wasn't worth it?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, that's a good question. It shows how difficult it is to walk away. You know I played nine seasons in the NFL. I lost sleep at night. My arm was going numb. My wife had to tell me, Coy, you're having panic attacks. It is not easy.

You know, I played against Tom Brady twice a year for six seasons when I played with the Buffalo Bills. And so I got to witness what made him so great. He was fully invested in his craft. He retires as the greatest quarterback of all time, a slew of records including most passing yards, most touchdowns, wins, playoff wins.

His seven Super Bowl titles are more than any NFL franchise have ever won. The Steelers and Patriots are tied with six. His 10 Super Bowl appearances, nearly 20 percent of the Super Bowls that have ever been played. Every NFL player, Kasie, struggles with retirement. Nothing compares to playing in the NFL. It's something that Brady was thinking about even in 2005 early in his career.

Listen to his answer in this interview when Brady was asked if there was anything that scares him.

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TOM BRADY, 7-TIME SUPER BOWL CHAMPION: And my playing career. Big time. And when I'm playing football during those seven months out of the year, I'd say easy. I'm going to get up and come in here. And they're not that it's easy to work. Not as easy to show up every day and do the job but you're focused, you know, you've got a goal, you've got something you're trying to accomplish. And when that's done, you don't have 1,000 people screaming your name. What's it going to be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Kasie, he went on to say that he'd heard about how some astronauts get depressed after they go to the moon because there's nothing on the planet that could fulfill them the way that did. Leaving the NFL is really difficult. He leaves as arguably the greatest of all time. Nobody works harder, studies harder.

When we played against his teams, Kasie, we would try to disguise a blitz. He would call it out before the snap and we'd like, he knows our defense better than we do. I'm not sure we will ever see another journey like this. The average NFL career is about three and a half years. He played 23, most rookies in the NFL this season. And weren't even born yet when Tom Brady was drafted.

[13:45:05]

So much more than a football player though, Kasie. As we know, he's a cultural icon. He's a real-life underdog story, overlooked, drafted 199. But he set out to prove everyone wrong. And I inspired a whole bunch of people along the way.

HUNT: And he sure did prove everybody wrong. No one I would rather talk to you about this than somebody who actually took the field against him. So Coy Wire, thanks very much --

WIRE: You got it.

HUNT: -- for bringing your perspective today. We really appreciate it.

Coming up next, could the air you breathe be impacting your mental health? A new study says that it is. We'll have those details coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:18]

HUNT: Right now, more than 40 million people are under winter weather alerts across the U.S. South. Freezing rain, sleet and ice are wreaking havoc with Texas bearing the brunt of the storm. There are more than 280,000 customers without electricity in the state.

And this was the scene near San Antonio this morning where ice was weighing down power lines, knocking them into trees. And it's impacting air travel too. More than 2,000 flight cancelations just today.

CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray joins us now. Jennifer, good to see you. How long is this expected to last?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're going to see this continue throughout much of the day today into tonight. We are expecting to see better weather tomorrow. But just to think we've been talking about this for more than 24 hours. Granted, some of these places have had a brief break in between these rounds of freezing rain and ice.

But we're seeing as much as an inch of ice reported in places like Austin, a city that's very hilly, so you get an inch of an icy glaze over the roadways, it is going to make travel impossible. We're also starting to see a lot of power outages. Those tree limbs are going to start coming down with the weight of that ice on them. And temperatures aren't going to get above freezing.

We're looking at 30 degrees in Dallas, 31 in Austin, so sitting just below freezing. Those without power, it's going to be a long afternoon and evening. 250,000 people or more without power in Texas alone. Look at these ice totals. We have about three quarters of an inch in Fischer, Texas, more than half an inch all across Texas as well as Arkansas and look at all of the reports of ice and sleet really positioned in those areas where we're seeing come down the hardest.

So we still have those ice storm warnings in place. Winter weather alerts and advisories are still in place. And it's still coming down. So we should start to see this finally taper off by the time we get into tonight. And then it will gradually move on out and really just turn into a cold rain, Kasie, and the spills all across the southeast.

Little Rock Memphis, even Nashville will still get some of that freezing rain and sleet potentially before it starts to change over to rain. And then the rain will continue throughout the day on Thursday into the early evening hours. But still, up to half an inch of ice across some of these places still to go, Kasie, before it's all said and done.

HUNT: Everybody should be careful out there. Jennifer Gray, thanks very much for that.

Now we know that dirty air isn't good for your health, obviously. But what about your mental health? A new study shows that people living in highly polluted areas are actually at a higher risk for depression and anxiety.

CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now for more on this. Elizabeth, what's the connection here?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kasie, it's really interesting. As you said, we know that dirty air can be bad for your health, for your lungs, for your heart, for other bodily organs. It sort of makes sense that it could also be bad for your neurological system.

So Kasie, what was amazing about this study was that it was huge and it went on for such a long time. Let's take a look. It was done in the U.K., it followed nearly 400,000 people for 11 years. And they found that those with the worst air quality, were eight to 70 -- had an eight to 17 percent higher risk of depression, and a nine to 14 higher risk of anxiety.

And this pollution, these are little particles, and they can come from anything from power plant to a farm. And these particles are so small, that's what really makes them dangerous. They can get past your bodies usually defenses, they can get stuck in your lungs. You see here respiratory problems and other things. So again, in some ways, it does make sense that it could also affect your brain and your neurological system. Kasie?

HUNT: So Elizabeth, is there any evidence that exposure to cleaner air might reverse what happens here?

COHEN: You know, Kasie, it's such an interesting question. And researchers are looking into that about whether it would make a difference, you know. But, unfortunately, a lot of people who live in places with a lot of pollution are poor, and they're maybe not able to move to a place with cleaner air.

So the authors of this study say, look, we got to do this right correctly from the beginning, which is to lower levels of pollutants at this at the source. Kasie?

HUNT: So important. All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much for that.

And moments from now, the funeral for Tyre Nichols begins in Memphis. Don't go anywhere. Stay with CNN as we continue our coverage.

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[13:55:30]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN Newsroom.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota. It's a busy news day. We're following several major stories at this hour. Right now, family and loved ones are gathering in Memphis for the funeral of Tyre Nichols. You can see them here just moments ago, entering the church.

The community celebrating the life of the 29-year-old. On January 7, he was pulled over and brutally beaten by five Memphis police officers. We will bring you the procession when it begins.

Also to today, the FBI searched President Biden summer home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.