Clarissa Ward shared the story of how a member of her CNN crew nearly got pistol-whipped by an Afghan fighter while covering a turbulent scene at Kabul’s airport.
“I’ve covered all sorts of crazy situations,” Ward said in a report that aired on CNN. “This was mayhem. This was nuts.”
Perhaps the most prominent reporter to cover the rapid fall of Afghanistan under Taliban fighters has been the chief international correspondent for the network. Perhaps unsurprisingly, social media has been abuzz with her words and her clothes.
Ward reported Wednesday that it was chaotic near the airport where people were asking for help. She said that a Taliban fighter called her to cover her face, or he would not talk to her. He was holding a small whip and a padlock.
Brent Swails (a CNN producer) was filming with a cellphone and two Taliban fighters approached him. Ward stated that they were about to strike him. Ward made a motion with her arms in order to mimic it.
A Taliban fighter stopped them and said not to hit him, as they were journalists.
“It’s very dicey, it’s very dangerous,” Ward said. “It’s completely unpredictable. To me, it’s a miracle that more people haven’t been seriously hurt.”
After joining CBS News in 2015, Ward joined CNN. Also, she has worked for Fox News and ABC News covering various hot spots around the globe.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted a portion of one of Ward’s Monday reports, where she described an “utterly bizarre” scene of people shouting “death to America” while also appearing friendly.
“Is there an enemy of America for whom @CNN won’t cheerlead?” Cruz tweeted.
That earned him a sharp Twitter response from CNN’s public relations department: “Rather than running off to Cancun in tough times, @clarissaward is risking her life to tell the world what’s happening. That’s called bravery.” It was a reference to Cruz’s Mexican vacation during a cold spell last winter that caused widespread power outages in Texas.
A meme on the Internet showed Ward’s pictures during two reports this week. One had her wearing a black tight headdress, while another left her hair unattended.
Social media users suggested that the images showed a contrast between life before and during Taliban rule. Missouri Republican Vicki Hartzler said the pictures showed “just how crushing Joe Biden will be for Afghan women’s future.”
Ward explained that Ward took the photo without her head covering while she was at a private compound. Ward was more conservative when she was out in public with Taliban fighters.
“My job is to get out on the streets and hear what people are thinking and see what’s going on,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “So I have to be willing to wear whatever it takes, honestly, to be able to go out and do my job and respect the tradition of whatever culture it is I’m reporting from.”
