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U.S. Military Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon; Interview With Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL); U.S. Official: Recovery Effort Of Chinese Spy Balloon Underway; Biden Ordered Balloon Shot Down "As Soon As Possible" When Briefed Wednesday, Some Republicans Criticize; GOP Contenders In 2024 Presidential Race. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 04, 2023 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:48]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Spy balloon down. A single missile from a U.S. fighter jet has now taken out the Chinese spy balloon that floated across America's skies this past week.

That dramatic sound just off the coast of South Carolina earlier today. Recovery efforts offshore are now under way as U.S. Intelligence officials hope to gain insight into exactly what China was up to and how this violation will impact relations with Beijing.

President Biden says the order to shoot down the balloon came directly from him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN has team coverage of this very tense moment in U.S./China relations. CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House but I want to start with CNN's Oren Liebermann who is over at the Pentagon. Oren, what are you learning about this recovery effort that is ongoing no? I assume, you know, that officials, they want to get their hands on this equipment as soon as possible.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely right, as quickly as possible. But it will take some time because of course, the debris, what was left of the payload, the length of three school buses we've reported has fallen into 47 feet of water, according to a senior defense official.

It will take some time to pull that up and to see what can be retrieved from this Chinese Surveillance satellite. It made its way across the U.S., we tracked it, there were people tracking it all it's way. And then it was shot down just off the coast of South Carolina, falling into the waters there.

The senior defense official says the U.S. was able to prevent China from gathering too much intelligence from this, and surveilling too much as it made its way across. Instead it was the opposite.

The officials says U.S. was the one looking at the spy satellite, looking at its capabilities and learning. Now that learning opportunity will continue with this recovery effort. The navy and the coast guard had assets standing by as this came down. They have now created a perimeter, a salvage ship on its way there to pull this out of 47 feet of water to see what can be learned from this as this recovery effort becomes the next phase of tracking this balloon and taking it down, Jim.

ACOSTA: And what did it take to shoot this down? For viewers who may be just tuning in now, this was a pretty dramatic scene that we saw earlier this afternoon and it's not very often that you see, you know, U.S. military assets taking down a foreign aircraft like this. I mean this is -- this is pretty remarkable.

LIEBERMANN: It is and frankly, we were somewhat half joking when we were asking, does this count as an air-to-air kill because this is a U.S. fighter jet firing a missile at a Chinese surveillance balloon. So we were half joking, we were wondering if this really does count as an air to air kill.

The planning for this began days ago when President Joe Biden ordered the Pentagon to prepare to take this down as soon as possible. Pentagon leaders determined that was only really possible once it was out over the water without undue risk to people or to property.

It was F-22 fighter jets launched from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia that ultimately fired the shot that killed this -- An Aim 9 sidewinder which is a short-range heat seeking missile. The F-22 was at about 58,000 feet. The senior defense official says, "So quite high. The balloon itself somewhere between 60,000 -- 65,000 feet and it was that one missile that killed the balloon and forced it to come down.

There were some supporting aircraft in the area. F-15s, tankers, as well but at 2:39, that balloon was down after all the planning, that would undo it again. It now goes from that effort to the recovery effort.

I'll just read a short statement here from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin right afterwards. He says, "President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon's path.

After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders have determined downing the balloon while over land posed and undue risk to people across a wider area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload. [17:04:58]

LIEBERMANN: We now know that payload in the water, the recovery effort on going now.

ACOSTA: All right. Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

Let's go over to the White House. CNN's Arlette Saenz is there for us. Arlette, we heard from the president earlier this afternoon. He didn't speak very long with reporters but he was very emphatic that he made this call to take down the balloon.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He was Jim, and President Biden was actually aboard Air Force One flying from Syracuse, New York to Hagerstown, Maryland as the military undertook that operation to take down that Chinese spy balloon.

But President Biden made clear to reporters that he asked his military leaders to shoot down that balloon as soon as possible. As Oren laid out, they ultimately waited until it was out over sea, out over waters to try to minimize the impact it would have on people on the ground. And President Biden talked about that thinking with reporters a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 it got over water within a 12-mile limit. They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators who did it and we'll have more to report on just a little later. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what can you say about China?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your message to China?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were saying the recommendation from your (INAUDIBLE).

BIDEN: I told them to shoot it down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Wednesday?

BIDEN: On Wednesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the recommendation --

BIDEN: They said to me let's wait until the safest place to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, this really marks the president's most fulsome comments relating to the Chinese spy balloon. It was earlier in the day where he made his very first comment saying that they were prepared to take care of it. He later gave reporters a thumb's up when somebody asked whether they would be shooting down that plane.

Of course, the president has faced some criticism especially from Republicans for not acting sooner and there have been questions brewing up on Capitol Hill. Some Democrats even saying that they are prepared to hold hearings into this matter as it has been a very serious tension point between the U.S. and China.

ACOSTA: All right. Arlette Saenz, a busy afternoon over at the White House. Thanks very much, Arlette. We appreciate it.

Right now, off the coast of South Carolina, military crews are scrambling to recover the wreckage of that Chinese spy balloon. U.S. fighter jets shot it down earlier this afternoon a few days after it first crossed into the continental United States and floated from Montana down to the Carolinas.

And joining us right now to talk about this is Travis Huffstetler, a local photographer who witnessed the military shoot down. Travis, describe what you saw -- it looks like you're there on the beach as we speak. How did this go down from your vantage point?

TRAVIS HUFFSTETLER, PHOTOGRAPHER: I come out to get video and photos of it and I didn't realize that they were going to shoot it down until almost right before it happened. And you could see the rocket or whatever it was that they shot from the plane.

You could see it start to separate from the plane, (INAUDIBLE) and as soon as it hit the balloon, you could hear a pop. I couldn't get it on video. I can't catch it actually hitting it. But you just seen the balloon just kind of explode. And you know, it just popped.

And like above it was like confetti. I mean it just looked like confetti, and the rest of it just collapsed and just started like floating down.

I'm not sure how fast it went. But it looked like it was falling pretty slow, honestly.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Yes. Travis, what was that like being out on the beach? Were there other people looking up at the sky and watching this go down?

HUFFSTETLER: Yes, sir, absolutely. The streets, I mean even downtown like here in surf side, people were outside. They were in the parking lots, pulling over on the side of the road. All the beach accesses. It looked like it was almost summertime here the way the beach accesses were packed with people.

So I actually went to one of the local condominiums and went up to the 15th floor on it because I knew I would have a better vantage point to be able to see it a little higher in the sky.

So yes, I mean it was pretty wild. It was definitely -- it was a definitely a show for everybody here in Myrtle Beach, the Grand Strand area.

ACOSTA: And about how long did it take for the balloon to come down after it was shot out of the sky?

HUFFSTETLER: Man, I don't know. It floated for a while. I mean I would say it took -- I never seen it actually hit the water because I lost track of it once it got down so far. I had phone calls coming in, everything else, trying to get, you know, figure out how to get in touch with you guys. But I don't know, maybe like five minutes?

ACOSTA: Interesting. Ok. Pretty wild stuff --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: What's that Travis?

HUFFSTETLER: Sir.

ACOSTA: Say that again?

[17:09:56]

HUFFSTETLER: I said it might not have even been five minutes. It might have been like maybe five minutes or so -- not sure by the time it actually hit the water because I lost track of it in the sky.

ACOSTA: All right. Travis Huffstetler, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

All right. Now this Chinese spy balloon's trip across the United States comes at a precarious time for the two countries. Much more on the rising tensions ahead. Stay with us.

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ACOSTA: Right now off the coast of South Carolina, military crews are scrambling to recover the wreckage of a Chinese spy balloon. A U.S. fighter jet shot it down this afternoon a few days after it crossed into the continental U.S. and floated from Montana to the Carolinas.

[17:14:47]

ACOSTA: And joining me now to talk about this is Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley. Congressman, I know you served eight years on the House Intelligence Committee. Your thoughts on how all of this went down. And I guess this move taken by China to send a spy balloon over the United States. It's a pretty brazen move.

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): You know, it is, and let me just add, so much has been said about this. To a large extent, it just doesn't make sense at this time.

Clearly both nations are attempting to normalize relations with the presidents meeting, now Secretary Blinken meeting with his counterpart. It is conceivable that somehow the Chinese president wasn't aware of at least the timing of this. It doesn't minimize the severity and the brazen attempts to surveil our country, putting in perspective the fact that there are low earth Chinese satellites surveilling all of these areas almost on an hourly basis.

And so all that is extraordinarily serious. It has to be mitigated against. It's why a healthy intelligence community is so important. But just so much of this doesn't make sense for to happen at this particular time.

ACOSTA: How important do you think it is to get this equipment out of the water and analyze it? We are told when they do recover this balloon and whatever surviving equipment remains that it's going to taken up to Quantico and examined.

QUIGLEY: Yes, I agree with my colleague, (INAUDIBLE) now, Mr. Hinds (ph). It's better to recover this and analyze it and see what we might learn about what the capabilities there are and how the Chinese are attempting to do this and rather than have spread over a long, long debris field.

So it made sense to not shoot this down until it was over the -- passed over the United States territory.

ACOSTA: And it sounds as though the Pentagon was taking this very seriously. They didn't see this hat as being accidental at all. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the balloon was being used to surveil strategic sites in the United States and the continental United States. How concerning is that?

QUIGLEY: Oh it's very concerning. All I'm saying is I think It's just as concerning that the satellites are up there. I think the only thing that might have been accidental is the president of China may not have known of the timing.

No, there is deliberate planning taking place by the Chinese government. In January, a grad student was sentenced to jail for six years in Chicago for spying on our scientists, our academics.

This is a very intense effort by the Chinese to spy on our government and our private sector, our military. This is important.

All I'm saying is it doesn't make sense that it's happening at this particular time with this brazen an effort when they are trying to normalize relations. And the concern would be that it is important for us to normalize these relations and this is going to send us in the exact opposite direction.

It doesn't benefit either country and it's a horrible mistake by the Chinese at this time.

ACOSTA: Have you ever heard of anything like this happen before? All your years on the Intelligence Committee? The Chinese sending a spy balloon over the U.S.?

QUIGLEY: Well, the Chinese have sent balloons over the U.S. properties. It has happened before. So you know, we're aware of this. But doing it over -- you know, directly the middle of the continental United States, we're trying to understand this. Because what most -- most spying would tend to be attempt at covert in nature. This is something in which I think every American is aware of. It is not particularly effective.

So look, we are concerned about this. We are concerned about the surveillance efforts. All I'm adding I think the equation is the fact that I think the Chinese made a historically difficult and silly mistake at an extremely bad time.

So we have to mitigate against all the efforts the Chinese government is making to surveil our government, and it is obviously human intelligence, signal intelligence. This is just one that every American has been made aware of.

ACOSTA: And what about these criticisms from Republican lawmakers who were saying that this balloon should have been shot down sooner than this over Montana, in a sparsely populated area, something along those lines? Do you agree that it was a good decision to allow this balloon to continue to float over the U.S. until it could be shot down off the coast?

QUIGLEY: Sure. Because look, this is flying at least twice the height of normal commercial aircraft, sometimes three or four times that. So who's going to do the calculus of when you actually shoot this down, how far it's going to travel before it lands somewhere.

[17:19:59]

QUIGLEY: And it is very likely that there is a lot of very heavy equipment in this. So I think what you do and the proper course of action was to mitigate against the surveillance that was taking place. The Department of Defense talked about doing that and is quite capable of doing that.

They've got a lot of experience. And once it gets into an area where it doesn't endanger Americans, you shoot it down, collect it and learn what you possibly can.

ACOSTA: And what we're talking in the previous hour with Congressman Adam Smith about all of this, he said that it was a mistake for Secretary of State Blinken to have cancel his trip. And that Blinken should be going over and confronting the Chinese about this. What do you think of that? Do you agree?

QUIGLEY: I absolutely agree. I think that you engage in an ongoing basis. There's always room for diplomacy. And I just remind everyone, the opposite of diplomacy is something you don't want. We are seemingly in a sort of Cold War with the Chinese right now. And there are a lot to be worried about with the military aggression, surveillance like this, everything from TikTok to, you know, the human rights violations, we're all aware of.

We need to address these issues, reminding ourselves that these two governments' economies are incredibly intertwined. The impact on one affects the other. So there's always room for diplomacy. I understand the pressure they might have felt to postpone this trip but I agree with my colleague, Mr. Smith, that those discussions should continue as terse as they might be, and that ongoing diplomatic efforts with our allies to pressure China to act more appropriately are more effective when we are in China as well.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Mike Quigley, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

QUIGLEY: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. Still ahead, we are still awaiting a response from China on the shootdown of their spy balloon. We will discuss what this means for this very tense relationship. And it's getting even more so between China and the United States. That's next.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:22:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: We're back with more on tonight's developing story.

The U.S. military shooting down that Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The President confirming that he gave the order earlier this week, but the military waited until the balloon could be taken down safely away from populated areas.

As far as we know at this hour, Beijing is still claiming that this was a weather research balloon. But the Pentagon and the Secretary of State say it was a surveillance craft with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin calling it unacceptable and an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty.

And joining me now to talk about this is David Sanger, the White House and National Security correspondent at the "New York Times". David, good to see you. All the times you and I have been on trips reporting on the president and dealing with China and this sort of stuff, never in my wildest drams have I imagined we would be talking about a spy balloon that had flown over the United States that resulted in the U.S. shooting it down.

How remarkable is this? And what does it say about this very tense relationship right now between the U.S. and China?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well Jim, in some ways, it's sort of the blast from the past, right? I mean the U.S. used balloons to do surveillance in the 1950s before satellites were invented. It's entirely conceivable that Secretary Austin is right here and that the balloon is actually intended to pick up communications, cell, maybe communications between military installations or nuclear installations that you couldn't get from satellite.

It couldn't be looking at something and getting much intel from that because that you could do from a satellite. But I think in some ways, the reaction to it here in the United States and in China is as revealing as the incident itself. Because you could see the balloon, because it was so obvious, it struck people in a way that deeper forms of surveillance, the Chinese moving into the Office of Personnel Management a few years ago and getting 22 million files of everybody who has a security clearance. Or even what they can glean from TikTok gets less publicity in some ways than a big, obvious balloon.

ACOSTA: So I mean that leads to my question which is why would they do something like this? What would be their motivation? What are your thought on that?

SANGER: My guess is they didn't really intend for this to go over the continental United States, particularly not now. Since Xi Jinping was reaffirmed and given a new term at the party congress a few months ago, he's been trying to improve relations a bit with the United States. That is what Secretary of state Blinken's trip was supposed to be all about. It's what the meeting a few months ago with President Biden in Bali was all about.

So my guess is, this was not on his agenda. And maybe it wasn't even intended to go entirely where it went. But once it did go over the United States, then they had to come up with a story that it was merely a meteorological experiment.

We'll know the answer to that now that they've been able to shoot it down, and presumably if they can recover it, it's in fairly shallow water. At some point, they should figure out what it was collecting. Whether they will make it public is another issue.

[17:29:51]

ACOSTA: Right.

And let me ask you this because in the last couple hours, we have spoken two different Democratic members of Congress, who were pretty critical of Secretary of State Blinken cancelling -- or postponing, I should say, that trip to China. He may still take it.

They were both advocating for the secretary of state to be confrontational with the Chinese and sort of confront them about this sort of thing.

And we know obviously, Republicans have been saying the president hasn't been tough enough on China.

SANGER: Yes.

ACOSTA: What do you think that takes us to next as far as the relationship between Washington and Beijing?

SANGER: Well, think of it. The secretary was supposed to have been flying, I think, out today. He would have been landing in China before they really knew, first, whether they had gotten the balloon down and, second, what it was collecting.

I think he will be in a better position to go confront the Chinese once we have a fact base of what the balloon was all about, what it was collecting.

Whether the Chinese story, that it was merely civilian meteorological, is accurate, or whether Secretary Austin is accurate, as I suspect that he is, that it had some sort of intelligence collection.

You are always in a stronger position to be confrontational if you have a set of facts first.

ACOSTA: That's true. I suspect in the days to come we will learn more about the balloon and what exactly they pull out of the ocean. Because that's the next step in all of this.

David Sanger --

SANGER: That is the key comment. You don't want to present the Chinese with an accusation until you understand what they are doing. That is the only way to pierce their cover story.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. We will find out soon enough if it was all hot air, so to speak.

(LAUGHTER)

ACOSTA: David Sanger, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

SANGER: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, still ahead, we're learning a single missile fired by U.S. fighter jets took down the Chinese spy balloon that had been flying for days across the U.S. What comes next as a recovery effort is now under way? We will talk about that in a few moments.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:36:16]

ACOSTA: We're back with breaking news on the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down earlier this afternoon by the U.S military off the coast of South Carolina.

Navy divers will assist as needed in recovering the balloon from the Atlantic Ocean. There are also unmanned vessels that can help retrieve it and bring it up to the recovery ship.

A senior military official telling CNN the debris is primarily in 47 feet of water.

CNN's Tom Foreman is at the Magic Wall.

Tom, we had you tracking this balloon as it floated over the United States. Now there is a very different but also extremely important effort under way right now to track it in the ocean and see if it can be retrieved and examined. TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, think how far the technology

came. If it's right, it went over the Aleutians, Alaska, into Canada. It came into the United States where it followed this track down here. That's more than 8,000 miles, about a third of the distance around the globe.

And then it dropped in from a height of roughly 60,000, a little over that, all the way down here in the water to finally come to a stop here. As best we can tell, just right in about that area on Myrtle Beach.

Forty-seven feet of water. That matters. Even the military says they were prepared for it to be much deeper. You don't need to go out very far before you are in hundreds of feet of water.

But it's in 47 feet of water. What does that mean? The recovery the military's own assessment could be relatively simple.

We don't know how much it was damaged in that fall. But this can easily be handled. Beginning scuba divers can handle 47 feet. If you bring in salvage ships that lower cranes down, if you have under water vessels, that could be a fast operation compared to what it might have been.

What do they look for? We talked about this. The focus is the payload down here, the part that was hanging beneath the balloon itself, and they will look at the technology in that package.

What is there? Is there any data that was gathered that was held there in any fashion, or was it an attempt to transmit it?

It's a lot to find out but where it landed makes it a lot simpler -- Jim?

ACOSTA: All right, Tom Foreman, lots to chew on there. Thank you very much.

Let's bring in retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's a CNN military analyst and former commanding general of the U.S. Army, Europe, and the Seventh Army.

General, thanks so much for being with us once again.

Let me ask you, Tom was going over the recovery effort. Are you confident that this equipment will be retrieved? They are going to get their hands on it?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: One hundred percent, Jim. You know, I got to say, for all but one day of the year, when Army plays Navy in football, the Navy divers especially are some of the greatest partners you can think of.

Harken back, Jim, to when we had a space program and manned astronauts and how fast capsules are recovered from the sea, how fast recovery efforts are conducted. Navy divers are some of the best in the business. And Tom is exact exactly right. This could be done quickly. We are talking hours, not days.

ACOSTA: The Navy divers are terrific.

General Hertling, let me ask you this. He and military leaders made the decision on Wednesday to shoot down the balloon as soon as it can be done in a safe way. In other words, it doesn't shot down over a populated area, landing on a mall or a school, something like that, which I guess is conceivable.

[17:39:59]

Do you agree with the decision to wait a few days to shoot it down or should it have been taken down in a remote area in Montana, something like that? We did hear some Montana lawmakers advocating for that earlier this week.

HERTLING: Any lawmakers that were advocating for it earlier in the week when it had a potential to hit a populated area, they were wrong, Jim.

I think the president, his intelligence staff, the Department of Defense, all the individuals that were part of the operation knew exactly what they were doing and they took some prudent responses.

I happen to have a friend who was the flight of operations director during the Columbia accident, the space shuttle accident. When the aircraft came down, it was spread across 17 different states.

You know, you can't always plan on where debris is going to land, especially when it's coming down from 60,000 feet. I think, you know, this was a very good, thought-out plan.

The president, as you just said, made the decision on Wednesday. But as I said in the last hour with you, they knew what they were looking at for days, if not weeks, before this as the balloon started coming over the Bering Sea and into the Aleutian Island chain.

ACOSTA: What do you think the Chinese got out of the balloon? We heard that there were efforts being made to essentially jam any transitions coming from that surveillance balloon. They were trying to mitigate what the balloon was collecting.

(CROSSTALK)

What did you make of that?

HERTLING: What I think we will learn as we get more and more information from the intelligence community, based on what I told you last hour, yes, they were able to jam and interrupt any electronic intelligence, signal intelligence, the package that tom was talking around, underneath the balloon.

Here's the thing. A lot of people say they were collecting intelligence off their bases. And people that don't understand that, the United States military has the ability to jam that equipment as soon as we' know about it.

It may have been flying over those bases. I suspect they didn't get any kind of intelligence because, not only the jamming but the early warning of the bases.

But having said that, they are collecting other intelligence on how the administration agencies work together, the decision-making process, support for the action by the American people, what members of Congress are saying. Are we divided in these things?

All of those things went into -- and was China given demarches or multiple demarches, saying, what are you doing or why are you doing this?

All of those things. I think the Chinese were also calculating in terms of, how do they do things? How does the United States do things. And we were generating and getting some intelligence back for what China was doing.

We can't forget, there was another balloon -- I don't know where it was. It was going over Latin or South America. And the Chinese --

ACOSTA: Right.

HERTLING: -- have been known to have literally dozens of balloons they may try to use in the future.

This is an important method of collecting not just the intelligence and electronic stuff in that package, but how do nations react? Are they prudent or do they take a "ready, shoot, aim" approach.

Like some of the members of Congress said, "shoot it down," without considering what other intelligence we would collect from this operation.

ACOSTA: Yes, this ain't skeet shooting, that's for sure.

Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

HERTLING: Always a pleasure, Jim. Thanks.

ACOSTA: All right, thanks.

Coming up, some Republicans are still criticizing President Biden for waiting too long to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon. We'll have a conversation about some of that in a few moments.

[17:44:09]

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ACOSTA: Today, President Biden revealed he told the Pentagon on Wednesday to shoot down the Chinese balloon as soon as it was safe to do so.

But there is still plenty of partisan sniping. GOP Senator J.D. Vance offering this photo and a tweet calling it, quote, a "dereliction of duty or worse" for not shooting down the balloon.

Speaker Kevin McCarty chiming in, "First Biden refused to defend our border and now he won't defend our skies".

And Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, "It would be great if an Average Joe would shoot it down because China Joe won't."

Joining us now to talk about this, CNN political commentator, S.E. Cupp, and Molly Jong-Fast, special correspondent for "Vanity Fair."

S.E., this is not exactly shooting beer bottles of your granddaddy's back porch. I think today, we saw the U.S. military handling it in a very professional way. It's really how it should end.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, this is really such a nonevent. It feels like it was invented by the "FOX & Friends" weekend crew, who wanted something to be mad at.

Joe Biden did exactly what he should do, which is trust his experts and advisers and not endanger American lives.

[17:49:52]

And when you put it next to the former guy who literally had his guys storm the capitol armed to overturn the election, it seems absurd that the partisan bickering has stooped to such a low level.

We're all going to be mad because Joe Biden took too long to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon.

ACOSTA: Molly, the president was very emphatic earlier this afternoon and he made it clear he gave this order on Wednesday to shoot it down as soon as it was safe to do so.

MOLLY JONG-FAST, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, "VANITY FAIR" & PODCAST HOST, "FAST POLITICS": Yes, this isn't real. This is like the outrage machine.

And these MAGA Republicans love guns, so they've decided, when you love guns so much, everything -- you know, if you only have a hammer, everything is a nail.

And so they're talking about guns shooting down a Chinese spy balloon that they could never reach. This is not a job for guns. This is a job for larger weapons.

And the reality is these Republicans have just decided that they can use it to sort of promote their pro-gun agenda. This week, we saw members of Congress, Republican members of Congress, wearing little assault rifle pins.

This is the fetishization of guns and it's not about anything real.

ACOSTA: Yes, there was a local sheriff who put out a tweet today, who said, please don't shoot up into the sky at the balloon. It's 60,000 feet in the air. You're not going to hit it.

S.E., let's shift to some important news in the political world. Earlier this afternoon, in the presidential primaries that have been under discussion and when they should be held.

The Democrats have approved the shakeup of the 2024 primary calendar. I guess it's far from a done deal just yet.

But what do you think? Could this impact GOP primaries? I mean, it's pretty -- I think it's pretty important that South Carolina's going to be going first, it looks like, instead of Iowa.

CUPP: I think it will. If you're a normal candidate. If you're a normal candidate, I think it will absolutely affect your calendar, your timing, and your "get out the vote" machine.

The only -- I'll remind you, the only person who has announced is Donald Trump, other than Steve Laffey, the former mayor of Rhode Island, who have about 500 Twitter followers. Trump's the only one who's announced.

So, for Trump, I don't think this matters at all. Because he's not a conventional candidate. He doesn't care about the calendar. His "get out the vote" machine is Twitter and Truth Social and his rallies. It really depends on who gets in the race and when.

ACOSTA: And, Molly, on the Republican side, although a half dozen or so potential candidates have dropped hints, it looks like Nikki Haley will be the first to take on Donald Trump.

You wrote about Trump's campaign and how it's anything but normal at this point. What stands out to you when it comes to not normal?

JONG-FAST: He's trying to sort of channel Jeb Bush normal-style campaign rallies as opposed to these like huge MAGA rallies that he used to have with all these people following him around.

I think ultimately, it comes -- you know, it falls on us to remind people that this person has multiple investigations, that he has incited this insurrection, and that there are -- he -- I mean, so far, everyone has been punished, including his CEO, but he himself has not. And I think that that's an odd place to be.

Right now, he still is the Republican frontrunner. So I think it's hard to cover him. But I do think the one thing that is good is he's not going to have all the free media he had last time.

ACOSTA: I think you're right about that.

S.E. Cupp, Molly Jong-Fast, thanks so much, ladies, for your time this afternoon. Appreciate it.

CUPP: Sure.

ACOSTA: All right. Now that U.S. jets have shot down that Chinese spy balloon, what happens next? The latest live from the Pentagon and White House coming up in just a few moments. Stay with us here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

In the meantime, more than one million people have died from drug overdoses during the opioid epidemic over the last 20 years. Nearly 100,000 of those deaths are from opioids.

Now, the new CNN film, "AMERICAN PAIN," takes you inside the opioid crisis, revealing the rise and fall of the identical twin brothers who ran one of the nation's largest opioid pill mill empires.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The George brothers did not start the opioid crisis, but they sure as hell poured gasoline on the fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's talk about growing up in Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything to do with money perks Chris and Jeff's interest. The big money was at the pain clinic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was window dressing that allowed them to deal drugs legally.

[17:55:01]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a line all the way down the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a frat house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were basically the Disneyland of pain clinics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They thought they were smarter than anybody else and they could get away with everything.

I felt this whole thing spiraling out of control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Florida was the never-ending pill bottle.

All these patients drive from out of state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were dying because of them. They didn't care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was just bat (EXPLETIVE DELETED) crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They put on the wire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people buried themselves. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a signal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Baby, I'm (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only in America.

ANNOUNCER: "AMERICAN PAIN," tomorrow at 9:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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