watching us here in the united states, canada, and all around the world. i m kim brunhuber. ahead on cnn newsroom, recovery efforts are underway after the u.s. military shot down a suspected spy balloon over the atlantic ocean. meanwhile beijing is warning it will use necessary steps in similar situations. could this push the u.s. toward a cold war with china or will both sides find a diplomatic solution? after days of suspected spying over the u.s. mainland, a chinese balloon was abruptly shot out of the sky on saturday by a u.s. fighter jet. the balloon was so high up when it was destroyed, the sound of the blast took several seconds to reach the ground. listen to this. and the shoot-down ended days of concern and speculation about the balloon s purpose. chinese insist it was a balloon. the u.s. is confident it was conducting a survey over the ocean and the u.s. issued a fighter jet with heat-seeking missile to destroy it. the debris landed in water that s about 47 feet
united states, canada, and all around the world. i m kim brunhuber. ahead on cnn newsroom i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. spy balloon down. a recovery effort now underway after fighter jets launched a precision strike. cnn has reporters across the globe on the latest developments. plus parts of the u.s. finally warming up, this after record-breaking freezing temperatures, the coldest in decades in some areas. we ll look at when people can see relief. and basketball superstar lebron james continues to chip away at the nba s all-time scoring record. we ll break down his latest game with cnn sports coy wire. you re about to see and hear the dramatic moment a u.s. missile took out the suspected chinese spy balloon that caused such havoc in the u.s. last week. have a look. it happened saturday off the coast of south carolina near myrtle beach. the balloon was so high up that it took a few seconds of the sound of the blast
hello, everyone. thank you for joining me this sunday. i m fredicka whitfield. a dramatic takedown and now a race to recover pieces of that suspected chinese supply balloon. the u.s. military shooting it out of the sky on saturday just off the coast of south carolina. you watched it with us live. president biden on wednesday ordering the balloon to be destroyed as soon as possible. his top military brass advising the president to wait until it was safely over the ocean. efforts are now under way to collect the fallen debris which will be taken to the fbi lab in quantico for analysis. the balloon had made its way across the country after first being spotted in montana on wednesday. its appearance over the u.s. and the military operation to take it down complicating the already tenuous relationship between the u.s. and china. beijing accusing the u.s. of overreacting and expressing strong dissatisfaction over the balloon s destruction. we have reporters around the world coverin
coast of myrtle beach, south carolina, collecting the wreckage of the downed balloon. republicans are condemning president biden for failing to take action on the balloon sooner. let s get the latest on the balloon and today s recovery efforts, zachary cohen is here. zachary, what more are we learning about this balloon and, i guess, at some point, they need to pull it up out of the ocean and start examining it. i think at this early stage, u.s. officials are not buying the chinese government s explanation that it was a civilian aircraft. they have strongly indicated, defense officials and administration officials, strongly told us that this was used for spying and they believe it was used to try to collect data about sensitive u.s. military sites across the country. now, that raises an being question, though, and one that the biden administration is going to have to grapple with in the next few days. they know that was the intent of this balloon, why did they not shoot it
administration acted indecisively and waited too long, letting the balloon float across the continental u.s. for days. president biden says the military advised him there would be less danger to the public in shooting down the balloon once it got over the ocean. lawmakers are reacting sharply and along party lines. i want to start by doing something that i don t do very often, which is commending joe biden for actually having the guts to shoot this down. that was the right thing to do. that is absolutely what the president should have done. unfortunately he didn t do that until a week after it entered u.s. airspace. they re saying we should have shot down the balloon the minute we saw it. i would use two words in answering these gop criticisms. they are premature, and they are political. presidents have the ability to go before a camera, go before the nation and basically explain these things early on, and his failure to do so, i don t understand that. i don t understan