Why Biden waited to shoot down the suspected spy balloon
From CNN's Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly, Natasha Bertrand, Pete Muntean and Oren Liebermann,
It would take seven days from when the suspected Chinese spy balloon first entered US airspace before an F-22 fighter jet fired a heat-seeking missile into it on the opposite end of the country, sending its equipment and machinery tumbling into the Atlantic Ocean.
In his Tuesday briefing with the president, Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed Joe Biden the balloon appeared to be on a clear path into the continental United States, differentiating it from previous Chinese surveillance craft.
The president appeared inclined at that point to take the balloon down and asked Milley and other military officials to draw up options and contingencies.
At the same time, Biden asked his national security team to take steps to prevent the balloon from being able to gather any intelligence -- essentially, by making sure no sensitive military activity or unencrypted communications would be conducted in its vicinity, officials said.
That evening, Pentagon officials met to review their military options. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, traveling abroad in Asia, participated virtually. NASA was also brought in to analyze and assess the potential debris field, based on the trajectory of the balloon, weather, and estimated payload.
When options were presented to Biden on Wednesday, he directed his military leadership to shoot down the balloon as soon as they viewed it as a viable option, given concerns about risks to people and property on the ground.
But Austin and Milley told Biden the risks of shooting the balloon down were too high while it was moving over the US, given the chance debris could endanger lives or property on the ground below.
“They said to me, ‘Let’s wait till the safest place to do it,’” Biden told reporters Saturday.
Biden had another key request, though: He wanted the military to shoot down the balloon in such a way that it would maximize their ability to recover its payload, allowing the US intelligence community to sift through its components and gain insights into its capabilities, officials said. Shooting it down over water also increased the chances of being able to recover the payload intact, the officials said.
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Indeed, the Navy and Coast Guard have ships and divers picking up the pieces as we speak....