[Alina Cho, Cnn Anchor:] Hi, everybody. Glad you're with us. It's 3:00 in the East. I'm Alina Cho, in for Brooke Baldwin. And we begin with breaking news in Maryland, where U.S. officials say an unmanned drone has crashed near Salisbury, Maryland. Our Chris Lawrence joins us live from the Pentagon with details on this. So, Chris, just how unusual is this?
[Chris Lawrence, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Very. You hear about this happening all the time in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan. Drones do go down. But to go down on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, highly unusual. Just got off with some Navy officials who say this was a routine training flight. And we're also getting some new information about how they were able to determine that. Apparently, as soon as they lost contact with this drone, they sent out a manned aircraft and the pilot was able to put some eyes on the wreckage and determine, A., that it crashed, and, B., that it looks like there were no injuries on the ground at the crash site. It's in what has been described as sort of a marshy area of this Nanticoke River on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. But this drone, the Global Hawk, it flies can fly up to 11 miles high. And it can fly for 30 hours at a time. It's used for a lot of reconnaissance because it can fly for so long and it can fly above the weather. Here in the United States, it's been used to keep track of wildfires burning in California. It was used to survey some of the damage after Hurricane Ike. And of course it's been flown overseas as well. In fact, one of the five drones that the Naval Air Station Pax River in Maryland, one of the drones that they have is currently deployed with the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. The other four go through routine training and that's what happened here. This drone was on a routine training mission and it went down.
[Cho:] Unbelievable and again highly unusual.
[Lawrence: Cho:] Chris Lawrence live from the Pentagon, Chris, thank you very much. Also happening now, Spain's bank bailout is expected to give the U.S. markets a big boost. Guess what? Stocks are down with just about an hour to go until the opening closing bell, rather.
[Cho:] Also developing now, the presidential appointee involved in a hit and run is back in Washington, D.C. We're talking about U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson. He was driving in Los Angeles County on Saturday night when the sheriff's department says he rear-ended a stopped car.
[Deputy Tony Moore, L.a. County Sheriff's Department:] At some point after that traffic collision occurred, he got out of vehicle, made contact with the individuals, but for some reason got back into his vehicle and left the scene. And when he left the scene, he struck the vehicle a second time.
[Cho:] And after hitting that car, sheriff's deputies say he drove off and just a few minutes later hit another car before being found unconscious behind the wheel. The Commerce Department says Bryson suffered a seizure. CNN's Brianna Keilar is live for us at the White House. So, Brianna, the commerce secretary, I understand, spent the night in the hospital in California. He's already back in the nation's capital. So, what is the White House reaction to all of this?
[Brianna Keilar, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Mostly, Alina, the White House is referring a lot of things to the Commerce Department. And there are still some details that need to be filled in at this point. The Commerce Department says that there was no drugs or alcohol involved in these crashes. And at least preliminarily, that's what the L.A. Sheriff's Department says, but White House Press Secretary Jay Carney sort of talking about this. I asked about the timing of this seizure that the Commerce Department said the secretary had in relation to the accident, because all the Commerce Department has said is that he was involved in accidents and that there was a seizure. Here is what Jay Carney said.
[Keilar:] What was the timing of the seizure in relation to the accident?
[Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary:] I would refer you, as I said in the past, to the Department of Commerce for more details.
[Keilar:] I have been asking them for hours.
[Carney:] I I just don't have those details for you. So I think I would refer you to the Commerce Department.
[Keilar:] Can you explain why there seems to be a parsing of it it just seems the Commerce Department is saying he was involved in accidents and he had a seizure, but there's really nothing connecting the dots and it's really an important point.
[Carney:] Well, again, as I have pointed out, there was a the commerce secretary was alone, he had a seizure, he was involved in an accident. I you know, I would refer you to the Commerce Department for more details. Those circumstances I think speak to some of the, you know, difficulty in getting details. But beyond that I just don't know and I would refer you to the Department of Congress.
[Keilar:] Doesn't it seem like it's causal though, the seizure...
[Carney:] Again, I'm not a I'm certainly not a doctor. I certainly didn't... ... was not a presiding doctor on this case, so I would refer you to the Department of Commerce.
[Keilar:] So it appears, Alina, that this may have been very much a health-related accident. But at the same time, the White House is being very careful. We learned from Carney that President Obama has not spoken with Bryson, but that his chief of staff, Jack Lew, has. The White House was informed of this last night. President Obama learned about it this morning Alina.
[Cho:] Well, good for you for continuing to ask, Brianna, even though you weren't getting many answers. But I do want to know did the White House say anything about putting Bryson on medical leave or a leave of absence or is he back to work already?
[Keilar:] No, there was no I wouldn't say he's back to work. There's nothing on his public schedule today. But I think it sort of speaks to the fact that he was able to travel from L.A. back to Washington in terms of where his health is. No, Carney said that Secretary Bryson has served effectively. And in terms of really does this affect his service as secretary of commerce, those questions are very much unanswered, it appears as the White House tries to track down some of these details and decide exactly where they're going, if anywhere, with this.
[Cho:] Well, I know he is facing a felony hit and run charge, but given what has happened in terms of medically with him, it looks like that that charge may drop. So, Brianna Keilar, thank you so much for that update. Appreciate it. And a lot more news developing this hour. Watch. Egypt's former ruler dying. Not long after Egypt's former ruler, Hosni Mubarak, gets life behind bars, his health takes a turn for the worse. Plus, a family of five once made six figures. Now they are living off food stamps.
[Unidentified Female:] I thought for sure that he'd go right back into the corporate world.
[Cho:] The new nightmares facing the middle class. And she's already survived breast cancer. Now an emotional Robin Roberts reveals another health scare.