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 South Carolina, the critical moment there, the air force and u. S. Northern command launched f22 fighter jets out of Langley Air Force base in hampton, virginia, towards this air craft, as well as a number of other support aircraft, f15s, as well as tankers to refew the operation according to a Senior Defenses operation. They fired an an a9 sidewinder, heat seeking short range, single shot, single kill. You can see the jet. Theres the f22 on the left that pierced the balloon, and the payload that was under it came falling down from a height of 60 to 65000 feet, according to a Senior Defense official. The f22 that fired that shot was just below it at 58000 feet. Would feel wolf . So what happens text, orin . I understand the u. S. Military as to recover whats left of the balloon and what was inside . Exactly. This goes from shooting it down to see what intelligence you can gain from it and what you can learn of the navy and the coast guard already had assets in position in preparation for the Recovery Effort and now that commences. The Senior Defense official says the wreckage is in about 47 feet of water, so not all that deep. It could have gone much deeper, which makes it easier to recover, but it is still not an easy proposition. Theyll establish a perimeter around it, bring a Salvage Vessel as quickly as possible to the area, and see what they can bring up. Keep in mind this was a Payload Hanging under a balloon, so they have to figure out what of it held together as it fell from six a thousand feet, nearly 12 miles high and crashed into the ocean below. Everything they can find they will want to find to see what they can learn from it. An intelligence gathering operation to find out what tech the chinese had onboard that balloon. Were constantly getting new information. I want you to stand by. Ori, in lieberman at the palm. Right now i want to go to the white house. Arlette is there. What are you hearing there right now . Well, wolf, president bush 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 onAir 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 12mile limit. They successfully took it down and i want to complement our aviators who did it. Well have more to report on this a little later. Thank you. What did they say about china . Whats your message to china . You were saying the recommendation was from your National Security i told them to shoot it down. Is on wednesday. On wednesday . They said to me, lets wait until its the safest place to do it. So President Biden really trying to make clear there that he gave this order to his Military Team on wednesday. Of course, they took all of those various considerations about where exactly to shoot down this balloon. There were those concerns about doing it over land. They were trying to prevent any potential risk to american lives and ultimately settling on shooting down this balloon overwater. Now, this all comes as President Biden has really faced a chorus of criticism from republicans, some mocking him, some just simply saying that his strategy in this situation has shown weakness. They have argued that he needed to take steps earlier in the process to stop this balloon from flying across the United States, and of course this is incredibly tense diplomatic moment for the u. S. And china. And potentially, it could become even more tense. Our white house correspondent, thank you very much. Lets discuss whats going on right now with the former u. S. Defense secretary, william cohen. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us to want. This is a very significant development, obviously. As you know, there was a lot of criticism from republicans over President Bidens handling of this issue, but the balloon is now down. Did you think it should be shot down sooner or was this done correctly, in your opinion . Absolutely not. I think President Biden acted president ial, and i wanted to commend him and Secretary Of Defense lloyd austin and the entire team, as well as our aviators, for having shown the kind of restraint and responsibility that we expect our military to engage in. And i would venture to say if he had ordered the shoot down much earlier and any americans had been injured, the same people calling for him to have shot it down early would be on him saying he acted recklessly. So no, he acted president ially. He clearly wanted to wait until this big balloon was over the water and all the wreckage and what was inside the balloon couldnt hurt anyone on the ground. What do you think, mr. Secretary, was chinas intended purpose in sending this huge balloon over the continental United States . Well, it really is baffling. I could paraphrase churchill, its sort of a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside of a balloon. We dont know what their motivation may have been, why they would do something so obvious, why they would do something deliberately at this time as were trying to at least reengage diplomatically. So it doesnt make a lot of sense, and thats why it was so important for us to understand what they were trying to do with this technology and was it to interrupt communications and to what end in and secondly, we could take advantage of our own capability as theyre flying over. So i think the questions will have to be when did we know that this did not pose a significant or any military or National Security threat . When did we cover that and decide for ourselves we could wait until it got to a safer place to take it out . I think those are the kinds of questions we have to ask and then have answered. Im sure the u. S. Military and Intelligence Community will be doing a full review, Lessons Learned are critically important right now. As you know, mr. Secretary, most of the balloons wreckage is in relatively Shallow Water out there just about 47 feet deep. As china possibly, possibly surrendered more intelligence than it actually gained by dispatching this balloon over the u. S. . You know, its really hard to know what they were doing, because as we all know, the chinese spy on us on a 24 and seven basis, every day, every year. Theyre monitoring everything. As other nations are doing and as we are doing. So it doesnt make sense for them to have done this. It may turn out, although im skeptical, that it was not an intelligence gathering system, because it seems unnecessary they would do that. But in the meantime, we have to remain skeptical. I think a message has been sent to the chinese of the message came in the form of a Sidewinder Missile taking the balloon out that we have the capability to react in any way thats in our interest to do so. So well have to wait for more information and i think it will be important for our Secretary Of State to get back to a meeting with president g. Seeing its reasonably possible. Just following up on that, after the chinese spy balloon appeared over the United States, the Secretary Of State, anthony blinken, actually postponed his trip to beijing. He was supposed to be there these days. Do you agree with that decision, to delay the trip . I do, because had he gone over without knowing what were finding out or hope to find out from the wreckage thats being retrieved as we speak, bees had he gone over there and just complained and chastised them, as we have been doing publicly, without having the full evidence, then i think we would have been at a handicap or he would have been handicapped at that time. Were going to get as much evidence as we can and then well go over there, renew certainly our relationship, tense as it is, and weve had these moments in the past where the bombing of the Chinese Embassy took place, when one of our aircraft was knocked down over hunan in china by one of the jets they threw up recklessly. Weve had these tense moments before, but the problem is were dealing with a near peer competitor and there are nuclear power. We have to deal with it responsibly, and thats why i say joe biden acted responsibly in the way he has carried out his president ial office. Well, on this point, mr. Secretary, are you concerned that the u. S. China Tension right now is escalating dangerously . And i ask the question, because a top u. S. Air force general just the other day was suggesting the u. S. And china could go to war, could be in conflict by the year 2025. Well, actually, it could happy in moment if we dont handle the relationship right. If we were to do something or they do something presently torely that we see as a threat or price versa, we could be in a Third World War with china. We need to be prepared to go to war with china, with any other power that threatens us, but nothing should be seen as inevitable. And always having the situation historically where you have an existing power, the u. S. , and a rising power, china, there has been conflict most of those occasions in the past. We need to do whatever we can to prevent that, because no one on the planet will win if theres of a nuclear or exchange or competition militarily between our two countries. Good point, mr. Secretary. Thank you. So much for joining us. William cohen, former u. S. Defense secretary. So how difficult will it be right now to retrieve this spy balloon . We dig into the Recovery Efforts that are going on. Thats coming up. Plus china is now publicly responding to the supply balloons destruction. What are they saying . Stay with us. 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Fighter jets off the coast of South Carolina. A source tells cnn that Government Agencies worked through the week to try to find the right time and the right place to intercept the balloon, which had floated across the country for days. Navy divers will assist as needed in recovering whats left of the balloon and what was inside the balloon, which is now in the Atlantic Ocean. There are also unmanned vessels that could help retrieve it. Cnns tom forman is joining us with the magic wall right now. Walk us through where the balloon went down, how deep it is, the water where the wreckage is right now and how this Recovery Effort may play out. I can tell you right away this is what theyre interested in. The payload, a central core of what looks like solar wings hanging from the outside. And when this thing was destroyed up here, you see that part dropping cleanly away down here toward the ground. Ive been doing a lot of math on this to look at where it came from. From over six a thousand feet, recalculating, weve been talking about Terminal Velocity for a sky diver being 120mile an hour. Lets say this weighs as much as as a car and it could be more. With a higher mass, the Terminal Velocity might be 500mile an hour. What does that mean . That means when it hit the water down here, really its the same as running into a concrete surface. Huge amount of damage would be done to it when it hit. If it youre imagining this all intact at the bottom, thats not really very likely. So recovery, you know, although its only in 47 feet of water, thats good, because even amateur scuba divers go that deeply. If it you have a skilled team working here, this is fairly favorable, the weather is favorable, but theyre going to have to start sorting through this debris. Theyll start by cataloging everything. Thats normal procedure. Figuring out where it is. Prioritizing what they want to bring up that might give them the biggest reward for all of this. And then coming up with a scheme to actually raise it through a series of cranes going down, maybe airlifted bags where they put them in to lift pieces up at piece at a time, trying to keep it all in order and seeing what they can pull together out of this. But it really is important to remember, theres a very good chance that it did go in at 500mile an hour, 600mile an hour. At that speed, the impact is huge. The damage is huge. Theres a lot to be learned from what is left, but if youre imagining this lying at the bottom of the ocean the way we saw it floating over the country, floating for more than 8,000 miles from china, its not going to be that way. Tom foreman, thank you very, very much. Right now i want to bring in retired lieutenant general, mark hurtling, former commanding general of the u. S. Army europe and 7th army. Thank you for joining us. Earlier today you said thanks to electronic jamming, you dont think the chinese got much intelligence from u. S. Military bases that this balloon was flying over, but you think they did gather valuable information on how the United States responds to a threat like this. Elaborate a little bit, if you dont mind. Talk to me a little bit about that. Yeah. Certainly, wolf. In these kind of things, what youre talking about is a a ba