The coast of myrtle beach, South Carolina. Tonight, military crews are jam bling to recover the wreckage, and china is responding angrily. Meanwhile, President Biden says he and u. S. Military leaders decided to wait until the balloon completed its crosscountry journey and was safely overwater before shooting it down. Listen to this. On wednesday when i was briefed on the balloon, i ordered the pentagon to shoot it down on wednesday as soon as possible. Cnn has Team Coverage of this extraordinary moment in u. S. China relations. I want to start with cnns Orin Lieberman over at the palm. Walk us through what happened earlier today. This was days of planning to get to this point, to figure out how best to shoot this balloon down and where best to shoot this balloon down. In the end, the Department Of Defense recommended waiting until it was out overwater and the prevailing winds over the United States, especially over the course of the past day, took it out over the waters of north and S
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
has been emphatic in stressing he ordered his military leaders to shoot down this balloon as soon as possible when he had discussion with them on wednesday. now, president biden was flying on-air force one from syracuse, new york, to hagerstown, maryland, as he made his way to camp david for the weekend as this operation was undertaken by the military. and he talked to reporters about some of the considerations that were given as he talked to the military about making this operation become a reality. 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, they decided that the best time to do that was when they got overwater, within a 12 mile limit. they successfully took it down and i want to complement our
we heard from the president a short while ago. he was very emphatic that he ordered this balloon to be shot down. what more can you tell us? reporter: he was, jim. president biden was on air force one traveling from syracuse, new york, to hagerstown, maryland, when the military undertook this operation. president biden spoke to reporters just in the last hour where he tried to clearly lay out the time line of when he gave that order saying he told his military officials he wanted to shoot down that plane as soon as possible. take a listen to what the president had to say. 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 they decided the best time to do that was when it got over water within a 12-mile limit. they successfully took it down
flying from syracuse, new york, to hagerstown, maryland, where he will be spending the weekend at camp david. shortly before he took off, the president gave a thumb s up when they asked whether he was going to take down the plane. and officials have said that president biden did authorize this operation to go ahead and take down that spy balloon and the president has been receiving these updates about possible options he could take throughout the week. beginning on tuesday when he was first briefed on that matter. but so far, officials have said that that balloon has been taken down, it s still being determined in what manner, exactly, it was taken down, and now those recovery efforts are also under way. arlette saenz, thank you so much. is the white house willing to reveal in any way i mean, the number often assets that will be involved in trying to retrieve? i mean presumably, and we hear it from the pentagon there s going to be a coordinated effort between the navy and coast