‘Ted Cruz Said Something Stupid About You’: Clarissa Ward on How She Dealt with Senator’s Attack While Covering the Taliban

CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward took unbelievable guff from conservatives like Senator Ted Cruz over a remark taken out of context during her reporting from Afghanistan, and in an exclusive interview with Mediaite, described how she dealt with it.

During a live report amid the Taliban’s chaotic takeover of Kabul, Ms. Ward uttered the words “They’re just chanting ‘Death to America,’ but they seem friendly at the same time,” as a way of describing the surreal experience of covering the events. “It’s utterly bizarre,” she added.

Conservatives like Cruz feigned outrage, and the senator accused Ward of “cheerleading” for the Taliban.

On Mediaite’s The Interview podcast, editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin asked Ward about the kerfuffle:

AIDAN MCLAUGHLIN: There was a somewhat ridiculous controversy that was sparked by some of your reporting in Kabul when you described fighters as “friendly,” and you said their friendliness was bizarre because they were at the same time chanting “Death to America.” And that very simple piece of reporting about what was going on prompted outrage from Senator Ted Cruz, who accused you of cheerleading for the enemy. What was that like seeing that sort of attack from a U.S. senator while you were in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan doing reporting?

CLARISSA WARD: I mean, honestly, it barely registered. People were like, Ted Cruz said something stupid about you, don’t engage with it. And I was like, okay. I was so busy. I was doing my job. I was totally consumed with reporting out this story. We were working 19 hour days and crashing these packages and doing live shots all night and getting up early. So I just really didn’t have time to obsess over what was being said about me. Also, because I understood immediately that it had nothing really to do with me or my reporting. Any time I or my work are being used in some way or appropriated for someone else’s political agenda, I really just tend to try to tune it out. It’s just a distraction.

Watch above, and download the full episode now, and subscribe to The Interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.