we begin with the recovery efforts under way off the south carolina coastline following that dramatic takedown of a suspected chinese spy balloon yesterday. the u.s. military blasting the balloon out of the sky after it drifted over the atlantic near myrtle beach. president biden saying he ordered the military to take it down on wednesday. now, efforts are under way to recover the debris and analyze it to find out what it may have been doing as it drifted across the u.s. over the last few days. chinese is accusing the u.s. of overreacting. we re covering this from all angles from the nation s capital to the coast where the balloon was shot down. let s start with diane gallagher in surfside beach, south carolina, where the recovery operation is under way, even though the conditions right now are allwful. what are you hearing about the search and recovery efforts of the debris? reporter: the weather not exactly clear as it was yesterday when everybody here in the myrtle beach
one official telling me last night that they re confident that china was trying to seek and monitor sensitive military sites with its trajectory of this balloon. they also pointed to some of the technical components of that balloon including the collection pods and also solar panels that were located right below the balloon. they say this is not something that is congruent with those types of devices. president biden tmade clear tha he wanted to ensure that they were trying to maximum the ability look at the payload that comes with it. and that s why the recovery effort is currently under way. but at the same time throughout the entire process, the president has faced a steady stream of criticism from republicans. today they are trying to paint him as late-acting, indecisive
and weak in his approach towards china. here is senator marco rubio. they calculated this carefully, with a message embedded in it, and i think that s the part we can t forget it. it s not just the balloon, it s the message, thewe can do whate we want and america can t stop it. reporter: the white house is insisting that the president was acting deliberately. today transportation secretary pete buttigieg defended the administration s approach saying that the president was trying to maximum the safety and security of americans on the ground. additional, defense officials have pointed to the fact that they were actually able to glean some information about the device as it was traversing, making its way across the united states. all of these factors are things that could play into the president s and the white house s defense as they continue to face questions about this matter. thanks so much.
we begin with the recovery efforts under way off the south carolina coastline following that dramatic takedown of a suspected chinese spy balloon yesterday. the u.s. military blasting the balloon out of the sky after it drifted over the atlantic near myrtle beach. president biden saying he ordered the military to take it down on wednesday. now, efforts are under way to recover the debris and analyze it to find out what it may have been doing as it drifted across the u.s. over the last few days. chinese is accusing the u.s. of overreacting. we re covering this from all angles from the nation s capital to the coast where the balloon was shot down. let s start with diane gallagher in surfside beach, south carolina, where the recovery operation is under way, even though the conditions right now are allwful.
path toward the lower 48, that s when it became a concerning incident and they briefed the president. when the president was briefed initially, they told us that biden s first inclination was to shoot down the balloon and he said he wanted the balloon shot down. he was convinced and told by top military officials it was safe toresafeer to wait until the balloon made it to the atlantic ocean. and that s what we saw yesterday on saturday. the military shot it down with an f-22 firing a single missile. we re going to see a lot of questions from republicans on the hill about this delay in waiting to shoot the balloon now until it crossed into the ocean and a member of the armed services committee and a fellow democrat pointed to something we ve heard from defense officials as well. an added benefit of waiting for