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U.S. Secretary Of State Postpones China Trip Over Suspected Spy Balloon; "Epic" Arctic Blast Hits Northeastern U.S.; Ukraine Braces As Moscow Steps Up Deployment Of Warships; Biden Touts Accomplishments Of First Two Years; African American Ap Course Revised Amid DeSantis Criticism. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired February 04, 2023 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching here in United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, all eyes are on the sky. We're tracking the suspected Chinese spy balloon flying across the United States. Will have a live report about the Chinese are saying about this incident, plus.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officials are advising people to stay indoors. If you do go outdoors, be advised that exposed skin can get frostbite in as little as a few minutes.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): More than 20 million Americans bracing for impact for what could be the biggest cold snap of the season. Wind chills in one part of New Hampshire reaching negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four more years. Four more years.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): President Biden previewing his platform for a possible 2024 reelection bid. This as the U.S. releases a blockbuster jobs number report.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. military believes a suspected Chinese spy balloon will finally leave U.S. airspace in a couple of days. Or it could be sooner. Some new weather models show the winds pushing it out over the Atlantic as early as today.
The Pentagon has been closely tracking the large object and concluded it's carrying a payload of surveillance gear. Military officials are advising against shooting it down for now but say that could eventually happen.
China has apologized and said the balloon entered U.S. airspace by accident. Beijing also claims it's a science balloon but the diplomatic blowback has been swift with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly postponing his long planned trip to Beijing on Friday.
But the balloon is very big, about the size of three city buses. The U.S. military is concerned that, if it were shot down, it would create a large and hazardous debris field, that could harm people and property on the ground.
CNN has reporters all over this developing story. Tom Foreman is tracking the balloon from Washington, D.C. Will Ripley is in Taipei, Taiwan, with a look at secretary of state Antony Blinken postponing his trip to China after the suspected spy balloon fallout.
But I want to start with Alex Marquardt at the State Department with what he's learning there.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): U.S. officials tell CNN the U.S. has not ruled out shooting down the Chinese spy balloon once there's no risk to civilians below.
But Secretary of State Antony Blinken telling reporters that China's flagrant violation of U.S. sovereignty forced him to postpone his trip to Beijing.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I made clear that the presence of this surveillance balloon in U.S. airspace is a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law, that it's an irresponsible act and that the PRC's decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.
MARQUARDT: It would have been the administration's highest level trip to China so far. The State Department said that the rare Chinese apology today and their claim that the balloon was for civilian purposes, floating off course, did not change their mind.
BLINKEN: I can only imagine what the reaction would be in China if they were on the other end. And what this has done is created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.
MARQUARDT: The balloon is flying at 60,000 feet up in the atmosphere, equipped with solar panels for power and a surveillance payload. The Pentagon says steps have been taken to protect sensitive intelligence targets beneath it on the ground, which may include silos of Minutemen 3 nuclear ballistic missiles scattered across Montana.
U.S. defense officials have been tracking the balloon closely for several days, debating whether to shoot it down and advising President Joe Biden it would be too dangerous.
BRIG. GEN. PAT RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We assessed that it does not pose a risk to people on the ground as it currently is traversing the Continental United States.
And so out of an abundance of caution, cognizant of the potential impact to civilians on the ground, from a debris field, right now, we're going to continue to monitor and review options.
MARQUARDT: Satellite and other data indicate the balloon may have originated in Central China, with weather patterns pushing it out over the Pacific Ocean into Canada and down into the United States, where it has been crossing Montana and into Missouri.
With current conditions, it could condition east and enter the Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina.
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MARQUARDT (voice-over): It can maneuver itself and has changed course, currently floating over the Central U.S., officials say, while offering little more on its precise location.
RYDER: The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is.
MARQUARDT: And they have, curiously training eyes and cameras toward the skies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What planet is that?
MARQUARDT: Pilots have also reported seeing the balloon as they fly by at high altitude, reporting balloon sightings to air traffic control.
MARQUARDT: Unless this Chinese balloon is shot down or somehow brought, down the Pentagon does believe that it will remain in U.S. airspace, floating across the country for the next few days. They say that they will continue to watch it and keep all options open.
Meanwhile back in the State Department, Antony Blinken is saying that he will reschedule his trip to Beijing when conditions allow. What those conditions are, precisely, they will not say.
But it is clear that the temperature between the U.S. and China does need to come down for that trip to happen -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, at the State Department.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Will Ripley is following the story for us from Taiwan. Will, we heard that Beijing is claiming it's a weather balloon.
What more are they saying?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're saying that this was an accident, Kim. It is unbelievable explanation when you think of it. The greater context of the importance of this Blinken visit that has now been abruptly postponed, a visit that Beijing has been preparing for ever since November.
That meeting at the G20 when President Biden and president Xi for three hours, where they talked about the importance of communication, to avoid miscalculation and missteps and misunderstandings.
It does seem that these lines of communication are open now because Secretary Blinken said that he spoke directly with his Chinese counterpart about this balloon when telling the Chinese he was going to postpone his trip. And it is postponed. It's not canceled.
But this balloon, at this time, whether it is a weather balloon, as China claims, whether it's a spy balloon as the Pentagon insists, it is still a distraction from the long list of contentious issues that the U.S. and China need to discuss whenever they do get together.
Including tensions over the self ruled democracy of Taiwan, semiconductors, human rights, not to mention the necessity for cooperation on issues of global importance, like climate change, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Will, I'm just curious, in terms of the actual people in China, are they aware of this story?
Are they talking about?
It what are they saying?
RIPLEY: They're talking about on Chinese social media but the spin inside China is that this is being blown out of proportion. This is not a major story in China. It doesn't make China look great that they lost control, essentially, of a balloon.
The Chinese while making a rare admission of regret, said that this is because of the westerly winds blowing this airship off this scheduled route; a serious deviation, in their words.
But they are accusing some politicians and media in the United States of blowing this issue out of proportion, taking advantage of it as an opportunity to, in their words, attack and discredit China, which is usually what China says whenever they're criticized for anything.
What makes this situation different, the fact that China actually acknowledged on the eve of the Blinken visit, that this balloon incursion was a mistake. And many analysts that I've spoken with seem to agree.
China has very little to gain here by this massive orb hovering over the heartland of America, including my alma mater, the University of Missouri/Columbia. There's not a whole lot of valuable intel they can gain even if they do hover over sensitive areas that they already have, analysts say.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting to get the Chinese perspective, there Will Ripley in Taipei, thanks so much.
Now to the deep freeze that's gripping the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. More than 20 million people in the Northeast are under wind chill warnings or advisories. Some areas already setting records as temperatures are forecast to keep falling.
The new national record for lowest wind chill was likely set in Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, a few hours ago at -108 degrees Fahrenheit. That's -77 degrees Celsius. If confirmed, it would be what many meteorologists have considered to be the record of -105 degrees Fahrenheit set in Alaska.
Officials say, treat this like a blizzard and stay inside to avoid frostbite or worse. One Vermont resident demonstrated how cold it was in Burlington on Friday by attempting to eat a plate of pasta. Look at this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the winter, there's nothing like hot buttered pasta. It's 5 below Fahrenheit and 20 below Celsius. I mean, it doesn't really get a lot colder than. That.
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BRUNHUBER: The wind chill in Boston will be about minus 32 degrees Fahrenheit. That's where CNN's Athena Jones is.
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ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, what was an extremely cold day here in Boston is turning into an even colder night and it's not just Boston. This dangerously cold weather is affecting the entire northeastern corner of the United States. And it's some of the coldest air in the Northern Hemisphere right now.
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JONES: It could break records in some areas, with nearly 25 million people under wind chill warnings or advisories. City and state officials are urging folks to stay inside and to bundle up if you do have to go outside.
The coldest temperatures are expected here in the overnight hours, from Friday into Saturday. The city could see wind chills that put the feels-like temperature as low as around -37 degrees Celsius.
At these temperatures, exposed skin can suffer from frostbite in a matter of minutes. And there's an increased threat of hypothermia, which can be deadly. So of course, everyone should be heeding the warnings of officials and staying inside as much as possible -- Athena Jones, CNN, Boston.
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BRUNHUBER: That arctic blast will linger most of the day Saturday and temperatures are expected to warm up by Sunday.
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BRUNHUBER: Leaders from the European Union announce more support for Ukraine. Ahead, we'll tell you what they've offered the country. And what they're still not ready to negotiate.
Plus, former prison inmates lead the charge for Russia in battles in Eastern Ukraine but they became expendable goods at the hands of mercenaries and pay a horrific price.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine is vowing to hold on to a key eastern city ahead of an expected Russian offensive, as Moscow also increases artillery attacks in the south.
Ukrainian officials say the southern city of Kherson was shelled 18 times on Friday with multiple fires were reported overnight. At least one civilian was killed in Friday's attacks and another wounded.
In the, east President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says surrounding the city of Bakhmut isn't an option. Russia is stepping up their attacks after trying to capture the city for months. But a Ukrainian intelligence officer says that battle is just a preview of what's to come, that fighting could significantly pick up as early as this month and Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to capture the Donbas region by March.
Now to a battle that one Ukrainian soldier compared to fending off a zombie attack. He's talking about the city of Bakhmut, where former prison inmates are apparently used as cannon fodder by the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Fred Pleitgen has that story and we want to warn you that some images in his report are graphic.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Ukrainian reinforcements on the move around the embattled city, Bakhmut. While the Russians have made gains here recently, Kyiv is now sending in some of its toughest combatants. Ukraine's president vowing stiff resistance.
"We consider Bakhmut our fortress," he says. "We consider our soldiers, who have fallen here, heroes. If we get
accelerated weapons, especially long-range, we will not only gain ground around Bakhmut but we will also begin to de-occupy Donbas."
Russia's gains here have come mostly thanks to this man, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the brutal Wagner private military company, now showing off his group's ever heavier weapons.
Wagner has long styled itself as Vladimir Putin's most effective fighting force, often using convicts recruited straight from Russian jails for near-suicidal assaults on Ukrainian positions.
The U.S. and Ukraine say Wagner troopers who refuse are often shot on the spot, a claim Wagner has not denied.
After taking a small village north of Bakhmut, these fighters even brag about the appalling conditions.
"The guys swam across the river," he says. "Their hands and feet froze, some lost their limbs but they went ahead and did not ask for evacuation."
While visiting a new Wagner training center in an occupied part of Ukraine, Prigozhin admitted he wants more fighters, ruthless, brutal and expendable.
"Here, they finish their training," he said. "First, they make them into baby eagles and, here, they become cannibals."
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PLEITGEN (voice-over): But those so-called cannibals appear to be dying by the thousands. This drone footage, given to us by Ukrainian forces, purports to show scores of Wagner fighters littering the hills around Bakhmut.
The drone commander tells me, "Wagner's assault tactics are extremely wasteful. They mix in prisoners with no combat experience and send them as cannon fodder to exhaust our fighters," he says. "Then they send their own special forces to attack our flanks."
While Ukrainian troops are on the back foot in Bakhmut, Wagner's attrition rate might be so high, they can't even find enough convicts to use as cannon fodder, says Olga Romanova of the civil rights group, Russia Behind Bars, that keeps in touch with those sent to Ukraine by Wagner.
"Seventy-seven percent is the number of combat and non-combat Wagner losses in the current campaign," she says. "That includes killed, wounded, deserted and captured."
And though, Ukrainian troops say they themselves are losing too many soldiers, they vow to outlast Russia's mercenaries, dying in their thousands on the eastern front -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Dnipro, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: More than 60 Russian prisoners of war are headed home after being released by Ukraine. That's according to a Russian state news agency. It says they were released after difficult negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
The agency says some of the troops belong to what it describes as a quote, "sensitive" category but there's no explanation as to what that means.
The wife of an American aid worker killed in Ukraine says her husband died while doing what he loved.
Pete Reed was killed in Bakhmut in Eastern Ukraine on Thursday while working with Global Outreach Doctors, that's according to Global Response Medicine, the humanitarian aid group which Reed founded.
Reed's wife posted on Instagram that he was evacuating civilians when his ambulance was shelled. When asked for comment, the U.S. State Department only confirmed the recent death of a U.S. citizen in Ukraine, adding the department is providing assistance to his family.
The European Union has announced additional support for Ukraine as well as tougher sanctions against Russia. It happened as E.U. officials visited Kyiv to reaffirm their longterm commitment to the country. CNN's Scott McLean reports.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, delegates at the first Ukraine-E.U. Summit since the full-scale invasion began were welcomed to Kyiv by air raid sirens that blared across the city. The summit itself came with new commitments from Europe, around $0.5 billion in new assistance, new money to help demine recaptured areas.
Promises to train thousands more Ukrainian troops and even millions of energy-saving light bulbs to cut down on energy use amidst Russian attacks on the grid. What Ukraine was hoping for though, was some kind of a signal, though, that their E.U. membership bid might be fast- tracked.
President Zelenskyy says that his country deserves to start negotiations on that this year. But Ukraine's potential membership comes with conditions. One of the biggest is cracking down on corruption.
The weeks leading up to the summit were filled with anti-corruption raids and investigations. And today, police announced charges against the heads of two companies accused of defrauding the defense ministry out of more than $3 million -- Scott McLean, CNN, London.
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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. has announced that funds from the forfeited assets of a Russian oligarch will go toward aid in Ukraine. Attorney general Merrick Garland made the announcement on Friday. He was joined by the Ukrainian prosecutor general. In June, millions were seized from the oligarch's bank account as
sanctions were having worked on behalf of the Russian government.
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MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today, I'm announcing that I have authorized the most ever transfer of forfeited Russian assets for use in Ukraine. These forfeited assets follow the announcement I made last April of the indictment of designated Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, on charges of sanctions evasions.
At that time I also announced the seizure of millions of dollars from an account of the U.S. financial institution, traced from Malofeyev's sanctions evasions.
Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered the funds forfeited to the United States. With my authorization today, the forfeited funds will next be transferred to the State Department to support the people of Ukraine.
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BRUNHUBER: The suspected Chinese spy balloon that we've been telling you about could be on its way out of U.S. airspace in the coming hours. Coming, up we'll take a closer look at how it was tracked and what we've learned about. It
Plus, an encouraging sign from American workers as the U.S. economy adds a stunning number of jobs last month.
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BRUNHUBER: Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber, this is CNN NEWSROOM.
There are new developments concerning the suspected Chinese spy balloon being tracked across the U.S. The Pentagon now says there's a second Chinese surveillance balloon somewhere over Latin America.
The U.S. official tells CNN, that one doesn't appear to be headed to the United States. In a rare public acknowledgment, China called the intrusion into U.S. airspace "an accident" and claims it's only a science balloon. But the Pentagon says it's a surveillance aircraft.
And on Friday, U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken responded by postponing his long-planned trip to Beijing. The high altitude balloon is being pushed along by the jet stream and
new computer models suggest it could be blown out over the Atlantic sometime today. CNN's Tom Foreman shows us how the object has been tracked over the last few days.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Based on what we've seen so far, you'd believe that it is, in fact, maneuverable. We know that it came in over the Aleutian Islands, according to the Pentagon, then through Canada, dropped down here into Montana, where it was spotted in a couple of places.
I do want to note, that North Dakota, you mentioned Kyung's reporting in the past, South Dakota, where I used to live as the kid, my dad worked with missile bases down there, other areas of interest here.
And then we know it moved on from there, at least based on the photographs we have, seen to be spotted down here in Missouri, certainly near Kansas City and then a little bit further on.
This thing is about 11 miles up, a normal airline going to fly about 5-5.5 miles up. So it's pretty big. You have to have the right conditions to see it.
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FOREMAN: But we don't really know every place it's been there. We do have a prediction on where it's going. And that is carried by the jet stream, if it is maneuverable to some degree, you can see maybe those little jogs there, carried by the jet stream, it's expected to sweep down this way.
Over St. Louis, we mentioned earlier; Kentucky, maybe a little corner of Tennessee, tiny piece of Virginia and then over to North Carolina here and then out to sea.
How fast?
That will depend upon the jet stream. There's no indication that this thing is wildly maneuverable. But it may be maneuverable within a range.
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BRUNHUBER: New data shows the U.S. economy is in much better shape than many predicted. The economy added more than half 1 million jobs in January, nearly three times as many as analysts had expected.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent. That's a level not seen since before the moon landing in 1969.
The surprisingly strong jobs report bucks a trend of five consecutive months of moderating job growth. Some economists cautioned January's gains were influenced by seasonal factors and subject to future revisions. Friday's jobs report revealed there are nearly two open positions for
every one person seeking a job, showing workers still have the upper hand.
And U.S. President Joe Biden touted the strong jobs report and stated the economy during a rally in his home state of Pennsylvania. He was there for the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting in Philadelphia, ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union speech and with an eye toward next year's election.
CNN's Arlette Saenz has more from Philadelphia.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden offered a bit of a preview of a possible 2024 reelection message as he rallied Democrats here in Philadelphia on Friday evening.
The president's trip to Pennsylvania comes as the White House has made a concerted effort in the week leading up to the State of the Union, to try and tell some of their accomplishments, from the bipartisan infrastructure law, to historic investments and climate change initiatives and also progress made when it comes to gun safety.
Even as the president focused on those accomplishments here, as he spoke at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting, he also ramped up his attacks on Republicans, take a listen.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jobs are, up wages are, up inflation is down. And COVID no longer controls our lives. But now the extreme MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives have made it clear they intend to put it all at risk.
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SAENZ: The president in recent weeks has been quite eager to draw a contrast with Republicans on a host of issues, including Social Security, Medicare and the economy.
On Friday, he received welcome news following that incredibly robust jobs report that prompted the president to say that the State of the Union and the state of the economy is strong.
Heading into the weekend, the president is preparing for that State of the Union address on Tuesday. And the White House says that he is playing to travel across the country in the following days, including stops in Wisconsin and Florida -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, traveling with the president, in Philadelphia.
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BRUNHUBER: There are new developments in the killing of Tyre Nichols who died last month after an encounter with Memphis police. The department says another officer, Preston Hemphill, has been fired
for violating multiple policies, including personal conduct and truthfulness. Hemphill could be seen on body camera footage tasing Nichols.
And two first responders have been suspended for failing to render emergency care and treatment. Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge have a week to request a review before the board.
Officials say they're waiting on the results of a state investigation before they recommend any more charges. Five former officers are already facing second degree murder charges in connection with Tyre Nichols violent arrest and death.
In Ohio, officials say a train derailment has caused a large fire near the border of Pennsylvania. Images of the scene show large smoke plumes rising from the flames, filling the air. A local mayor says emergency crews from multiple states have been deployed to contain the fire and evacuate homes.
The Environmental Protection Agency is also monitoring the air quality. Now there have been no reports of injuries or deaths from the accident and the cause is still unclear.
Chile has declared some areas of the country catastrophes after wildfires burned some 14,000 hectares between Santiago and the south of the nation. Declarations prompted the deployment of soldiers and extra resources to help battle the flames.
More than three dozen fires are raging, damaging hundreds of homes and shelters are open for those who have had to run for cover. Chile is in the midst of a summer heat wave. Hot, weather and strong winds are threatening to worsen the dangerous fire conditions.
All, right still ahead, how U.S. schools teach about the legacy of race and racism and how political pressure affected an African American studies course. Please, stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: There's controversy in Florida over how race and history are being taught in schools. At the center of the issue is an advanced placement African American studies class.
Florida's Republican governor threatened to block the course under a law he pushed for, called the stop woke act. Governor DeSantis says the curriculum has a political agenda. Leyla Santiago spoke to those who say the law is covering up history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARVIN DUNN, HISTORIAN: Look at this traffic; for 42 years, not knowing this man was killed right here and (INAUDIBLE) this week from that moment was never the same (ph).
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The man was Arthur McDuffie, a Black father beaten to death by white police officers in Miami in 1979. When the officers were acquitted, riots followed.
SANTIAGO: So it happened right here?
DUNN: Right here.
SANTIAGO (voice-over): It's places like this that are central to historian Marvin Dunn's Teach the Truth tours, an effort to shed light on the history he says many students don't learn about in the classroom.
DUNN: There is now an effort in Florida to cherry pick history. And when you start cherry picking history, you need to make sure you don't have somebody doing that who hates cherries.
SANTIAGO: The latest controversy, on advanced placement African American study course. The college board, the non-profit that oversees the AP program, has now revised its official course work. Florida's Department of Education had rejected the initial proposal to the pilot course, saying it was, quote, inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.
Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, up to this point, has been very critical of the pilot program.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We have history in a lot of different shapes and sizes. People that have participated to make the country great. People that have stood up when it wasn't easy. And they all deserve to be taught. But abolishing prisons being taught to high school kids as if that's somehow a fact?
No, that's not appropriate.
SANTIAGO (voice-over): Last year, Florida passed legislation known as the Stop WOKE Act, championed by DeSantis. In part, it barred instruction that suggests anyone is privileged or oppressed --
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SANTIAGO (voice-over): -- based on their race or skin color. The state's objections to the AP course stemmed from proposed course work written a year ago for the pilot program.
The Department of Education provided CNN with a copy of the curriculum they reviewed and the list of the state's objections, all related to Unit 4, titled "Movements and Debates."
Concerns included Black queer studies, movements for Black lives, Black feminist literary thought, among others, citing concerns about the works of specific authors and scholars. DESANTIS: This course on Black history, what are one of the -- what's one of the lessons about?
Queer theory. Now who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory?
That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids.
SANTIAGO: But in the newly released official framework, Unit Four does not include any of the authors or scholars that the state listed as a concern. Queer theory and Black Lives Matter still mentioned in the course but only as ideas for potential student project topics.
We asked the co-chair of the development committee for the course if any changes were made because of the objections of the state of Florida?
ROBERT PATTERSON, AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: No. That -- if -- if that were the case, if the state of Florida or any state itself, could single-handedly alter the curriculum of African American studies, the AP African American studies course or any AP course.
For that matter, it would actually undermine the integrity of the process that we have in place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I learned a lot.
SANTIAGO: CJ Footman, TJ Brown and their moms, who live in Miami, say they've been waiting for a course like this. They all attended a Teach the Truth tour and say they wouldn't know as much about their own history if it weren't for the courses taught by Dunn.
CJ FOOTMAN, STUDENT: We learn about the same people every year, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks. I feel like it's just the same stuff being taught to us and it's kind of like, OK, they can know this but that's it.
TJ BROWN, STUDENT: I feel like if we don't learn this history, it might just repeat itself. And it's going to keep going on and on. So we have to learn it in order to stop it.
SANTIAGO: Some parents welcome the scrutiny. Omeshia Smith told us she wouldn't mind if her own daughter took the course but some things, she said, are best taught at home.
OMESHIA SMITH, PARENT: Some things, like the queer studies, that may or may not offend some of the children, make them feel a little bit uncomfortable.
SANTIAGO: As for Professor Dunn, he's now part of a lawsuit against the state's Stop WOKE Law. Being uncomfortable, he says, is a part of learning and understanding the history that is often overlooked.
DUNN: It look like what had happened here. A man had been massacred at that -- at this spot. But listen, every community in this country has spots like this, places where Blacks have been abused, killed and they've been forgotten about. This is not unique to Miami.
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BRUNHUBER: For more on all this, I want to bring in Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Thanks so much for being here with us. So the AP class that we were just seeing there, it's already being taught in 60 high schools; next year, 500 high schools. And then they'll be adopted by whichever schools that want to do it.
So we've heard in that piece one of the most compelling arguments for this class, the person who said essentially that, if they don't learn about this, history might repeat itself.
So what's at stake here?
ADAM STEINBAUGH, ATTORNEY, FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION: I think that one of the important things to remember here is that, while the state has considerable leeway to figure out or to define or to assert what the content of a high school or K-12 course should be, AP courses are about college credit.
And if you are going to be taking a college level course, you should probably expect to see some college level concepts and be mature enough to think critically about them.
So I think that, if a state is going to start limiting the ideas that are going to be in what are essentially college level classes, if every state gets a veto over those ideas, you're going to wind up with only the most vanilla, boring ideas in a history course. And a history course shouldn't be boring, because history is not boring.
BRUNHUBER: But how do you respond to the main criticism, I guess the main pillar of the stop woke act, that it could cause anguish to people of a certain race, white people in this case, for the historical actions against Black people?
STEINBAUGH: History is full of anguish and history is full of pain and full of reprehensible conduct, reprehensible events. And the only way that you can learn from history is by looking directly at it.
That's going to make people uncomfortable and if you're taking a, what is essentially a college level class, you should feel uncomfortable.
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STEINBAUGH: If you leave a college level class feeling comfortable about history or about whatever topic you're studying, maybe save for mathematics, you should feel uncomfortable in those courses.
BRUNHUBER: A lot of the spotlight recently has been on Florida. But as of last year, I think eight states have passed laws restricting school curriculum about subjects like race, gender, sexuality and inequality.
I, mean it seems to be a really concerted national effort here.
What effect is it already having?
STEINBAUGH: Well, I think that if you look at most of the states that have adopted these types of regulations, most of them are focusing on K-12 courses. But even when you have states that are primarily focusing on K-12 courses, you're seeing some bleed-over into higher education.
So for example, in Oklahoma, there was a community college -- to remind viewers, Oklahoma has a very significant history of abusive race relations, including the Tulsa race riots, the Tulsa race massacre.
But a community college, there in response to a law that is primarily about K-12 institutions, canceled a class on race relations because a parent had complained about it. And the college claimed that they needed to ascertain whether or not the subject matter of the course was prohibited by a state law.
And it only took a national outrage over this to get the college to back down from that.
BRUNHUBER: You talk about a lot of these efforts focusing on K-12 but we also see conservatives reshaping colleges. Ron DeSantis, for instance, overhauled the board of a new college of Florida, which was a left leaning college. Now he is trying to make it more conservative.
And overall across the country, I think I saw a number, some 39 percent of bills in 2022 targeted higher ed, compared with 30 percent in 2021. That was according to PEN America.
So why do you think the focus is shifting slightly now toward colleges?
STEINBAUGH: It's hard to say. But I wish the folks would shift elsewhere. Colleges are supposed to be where you have unfettered debate and where you get ideas -- or as you're growing, up as you are, discovering yourself, you encounter ideas and theories that you might not agree with.
And it's about thinking, discovering these ideas and grappling with, them and figuring out what your view on it is. And the only way to do that is to be exposed to the broadest possible range of ideas.
BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there. We really appreciate your insights, Adam Steinbaugh, thank you so much.
STEINBAUGH: Thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: An NBA superstar apparently wants to leave his team. Ahead we'll explain why Kyrie Irving has reportedly asked the Brooklyn Nets to trade him. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: All right that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Kim Brunhuber. You can follow me on Twitter at Kim Brunhuber. For viewers in North America, "CNN THIS MORNING" is, next for the rest of the, world "VITAL SIGNS" with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
