you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta. we are following breaking news at this hour. the president declaring moments ago that he ordered the pentagon to shoot down the chinese spy balloon as soon as possible. the u.s. is in a recovery effort after a u.s. fighter jet launched a precision strike on the chinese spy balloon. it came after days of watching it float from montana, to missouri to the carolinas. here is another video of that strike. this is a tense moment in u.s./china relations. the world will be watching in the hours and days ahead. let s get straight to cnn s oren liebermann at the pentagon. oren, what more are you learning? i understand you were listening to officials explain how all of this went down. what can you tell us? it started on wednesday when president joe biden gave the authorization to shoot down the chinese balloo n as soon as possible. there were tankers and others to shoot this down. it was an f-22 that fired an a 9 side wind er. the ai
security concerns for days. most of the wreckage is believes to be sitting in 47 feet of water at this hour. let s go now to oren at the pentagon. do we think we might have get an update this evening as to whether or not they have been able to secure that wreckage and retrieve it? they ll put a perimeter around it with navy and coast guard assets that were in the area. whether they can retrieve it tonight or tomorrow, that s a different question. 47 feet of water according to a senior defense official, so not that deep, but still it s a question of what s left, what s down there and what shape is it in and how do you bring it up without damaging it further. salvage vessel is on the way. it might not be there in time to do it tonight, but it will get there as quickly as possible to begin. why is that so important? because the pentagon has said repeatedly this was a chinese surveillance balloon that had the ability to maneuver, loiter. and because of that, there s information
to proceed. given the biden administration has said one of the key pillars in foreign policy when presented with a choice between autocrats and democracies, they stand with democracies. can you help us understand why the secretary decided to proceed with the trips given the ban and should we expect that going forward? our relationship with egypt is a important strategic partnership. the secretary met with his counter parts and talked about that. i ll tell you when it came to the press coverage of that portion, having looked further into it, the egyptians lived up to what they had greed upon. some of the lessons learned was in terms of making sure that we were on the same sheet when it came to understanding press access. so we will continue to work. the u.s. had agreed beforehand there there would be a band of journalists? we did not agree to a ban. we agreed to have official photographers. we had one reporter come in to one of the sessions but a portion that was going t
really happy to have you here. on a news day like today it is i will admit a little bit hard to know where to begin, but today is yet another day when one place to begin is with today s american mass shoot. this time in louisville, kentucky downtown louisville, right next to the minor league baseball park there police say a 25-year-old man armed with a rifle shot 13 people at a bank at which he was either currently or very recently employed. four of the people he shot were killed, nine were injured, and of those nine injured three are consi considerered to be critically wounded. because this is what it s like in our country increasely awash in high powered weapons, while the louisville police were responding to that absolutely devastating just catastrophic multiple murder scene at that bank, while they were responding to that call, they got a second call from less than 2 miles away, a call about multiple people shot at a nearby community college, one person dead there as well
Charles and the Queen Consort will host Faith Leaders at Buckingham Palace before the king and his siblings head to westminster to stand vigil by their mothers coffin this evening. Well bring you the latest from london, but first, lets turn to legal news in the United States. Right now were awaiting to see what doj is going to do next now that a federal judge has denied his request for access to classified documents to continue its investigation. Legal experts are scratching their heads at the decision. Also in the denial, judge cannon appointed a Special Master. Who he is and the deadline the judge set for him. Joining me now is nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, also lisa ruben and carol lamb. Walk us through the decision from the judge here. Why did she say no to doj about being able to access those classified documents when they said it was a matter of National Security. This judge who was appointed by former President Trump really adopted the trump view