ukraine. the lead with jake tapper starts right now. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper. we start with breaking news, the united states military has taken down another high-altitude object flying over the united states this afternoon. the white house announced the object was shot down at 1:45 p.m. eastern time at the direction of president biden. u.s. officials say it was flying off alaska s northern coast at an altitude of 40,000 feet and was approximately the size of a small car. as of now, the administration is not offering many more details than that. we re calling this an object because that s the best description we have right now. we do not know who owns it, whether it s it s state owned or corporate owned or privately owned. we just don t know. the context, of course, is crucial. last saturday, less than a week ago, the u.s. military shot down what the biden administration says was a chinese surveillance balloon. they did this off the coast of the united
multiple crimes, including conspiracy and money laundering. he is in a lot of trouble. we will get to all of that in just a few minutes. but we must begin this evening s broadcast in the united kingdom where it is already four in the morning on friday. and that nation is just beginning its full full day without a screen. elizabeth the second died at her castle in scotland earlier today. she was 96 years old. people kept out near buckingham palace in london, all night long, paying tribute to the only monarch they have known for more than 70 years. she range longer than any other british monarch in history. the late queen s eldest son inherits the throne. he is now king charles the third. tomorrow, he is expected to return to london from scotland to speak to the nation. nbc s keir simmons has more on queens elizabeth and her extraordinary life. the palace first announced this morning doctors were concerned about her health. then, around 6:30 local time, posting a statement on
very contentious process. if he hits the campaign trail, he may have to give testimony in the probe. he hired a very a lawyer, emmett flood, who s very hawkish on the executive privilege idea. exactly. and i can t wait to see how this all plays out. look, he opened the door with his memoir. you can t go before the grand jury and say, sorry, i can t answer that question, but you can read all about it in my book. he muddied the waters a little. but it will be interesting, questions about privilege. interesting. paula reid, thank you so much. joining us to discuss, former watergate prosecutor nick ack ackerman. thanks for joining us. the fbi found another classified document in vice president pence s possession. does that complicate things for him? i don t really think so. i mean, i think what he did, the sail thing that joe biden did, was they basically invited the fbi in. it put the onus on the fbi as opposed to their own legal team to come up with whatever was there. and ce
really long time, a special master s appointed, he starts his work, and there are all sorts of legal questions. running amok. exactly. and, she said, if you re gonna make us do that, we re also enough to stop the damage assessment that you agreed was really important, because the fbi participates both, and we can do one without the other. so we are going to put our pens down, and we re gonna sit on our hands, and that is going to be on you. and i think that that was a really strong thing to say. and then they kind of sweetened it, or tempered it a bit, because they also said to her, here is a way for you to say they fixed, you can stand by this ruling even though we think it s wrong and terrible. most of it. you can keep going with your special master idea. and you can keep going with her executive privilege idea, but just let us have our 100 classified documents. you do you with the 16 boxes,
comes to health care. you will die if you don t get health care into my children feel that way if they don t go to disney. that s where the rubber might hit the road. it might become more expensive if you are a flyer, if you are a cargo company. your fedex shipments or u.p.s. shipments may be more but you don t see tax increases and it s not subject totach cuts. that s an interesting thing. this is a far less radical agenda item than we ve seen from the president. this white house needs a win right now. ing infrastructure if the president stays on message, if he presents something that is pat latable, you weren t going to get nancy pelosi to say i m on board. ted cruz is nodding like he agrees with it. when we were talking about the james comey stuff, i want to go over what the executive privilege idea is. there s a discussion about whether the white house will invoke this executive privilege. i think we ve got a screen we can pop up there to discuss what it is. but the idea is t