Fox News NatSec Correspondent Jennifer Griffin Reflects on Afghanistan Coverage: ‘One of the Most Challenging Two Weeks of Reporting of My Life’

Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin spoke with Howard Kurtz on MediaBuzz Sunday reflecting on covering the chaos and tragedies in Afghanistan.

Griffin opened talking about the news of a U.S. airstrike that took out a vehicle in Kabul with bombs that was believed to be a threat to the airport.

Kurtz brought up her recent exchanges at Pentagon press briefings to ask, “When generals and top Pentagon officials are at the podium making statements earlier in the week saying everything was going according to plan, how challenging is it for you to stand up and say, well, that doesn’t match the facts as you were reporting them or the facts on the ground?”

“It’s not challenging for me to ask questions when they’re at the podium. It’s not challenging for us to because this is a story that we’ve been covering, I’ve been covering, for more than 20 years,” Griffin said.

What is difficult is trying to get at ground truth in real time. And what has been so very difficult this week, I think, is for us to explain and even for the Pentagon to explain the very complicated relationship that they have had to work out with the Taliban in real time as they had to retake that airport, control the airport, and get 117,000 Afghans evacuated and Americans evacuated in the last two weeks. Those relationships and how they are actually depending on the Taliban for security and at checkpoints outside the airport, that is really difficult for us to explain to our audience.

She talked with Kurtz about how she’s been working in Afghanistan for almost 30 years, and said in addition to potential national security implications of the past few weeks, “it’s very upsetting also to think of all of the American allies that we will be leaving behind.”

Kurtz asked if it’s hard for her to grapple with the emotion she feels during the coverage, given how she has “gotten to know so many military people” over the years.

“There’s no doubt that that is the hardest part of this job,” Griffin said. “The emotions, keeping them in check, and staying focused to ask the tough questions of the Pentagon when you know that there are individuals who have lost loved ones, colleagues. This has been one of the most challenging two weeks of reporting of my life.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.