noon on saturday. now, the president was flying on air force one from syracuse, new york, to maryland and was on the phone with his top officials as this operation was under way. and here's what he had to tell reporters about the considerations given to that decision. >> on wednesday when i was briefed on the balloon i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. they decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground and decided that the best time to do that was it got over water within a 12-mile limit. they successfully took it down, and i want to compliment our aviators who did it, and we'll have more to report on this a little later. thank you. >> what's your message to china? >> you were saying the recommendation was from -- >> i told them to shoot it down. >> on wednesday. >> on wednesday. they said to me let's wait until the safest place to do it. >> republicans were quick to criticize president biden for