CNN Slams Ted Cruz After He Calls Reporter 'Enemy of America' for Staying in Afghanistan

CNN is defending its chief international correspondent after Senator Ted Cruz criticized her for staying in Afghanistan to report on the aftermath of the Taliban's takeover of Kabul.

Calling out Cruz for traveling to Mexico during Texas' deadly winter storm last February, CNN's communications account tweeted at the senator, "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."

The network continued, "Instead of RTing a conspiracy theorist's misleading soundbite, perhaps your time would be better spent helping Americans in harm's way."

Earlier on Monday, Cruz retweeted a video of correspondent Clarissa Ward, in which she is heard describing a scene outside the abandoned U.S. Embassy in Kabul: "They're just chanting 'death to America' but they seem friendly at the same time. It is utterly bizarre."

Cruz asked, "Is there an enemy of America for whom @CNN WON'T cheerlead?" He noted that Ward was wearing a burqa, which the Taliban required women to wear in public when the group controlled the country two decades ago.

Ward clarified that she had always worn a headscarf on the streets of Kabul and that recirculated images of her without one were taken from segments filmed in a private compound.

CNN's reporters quickly came to Ward's defense after Cruz's remarks.

Political reporter Andrew Kaczynski wrote to Cruz, "Low class tweet about a colleague who has put her life on the line throughout the conflict to bring people news. And takes her out of context to boot and maliciously accuses her of cheerleading for the Taliban."

And CNN's chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, said, "What poor taste. Given Clarissa is busy reporting on the ground in Kabul where the government has collapsed and the Taliban has taken over."

Other journalists, including Ana Violeta Navarro-Cárdenas and The New York Times' Maggie Haberman, slammed Cruz for his tweet.

"I'd love to see you in Kabul, standing unarmed, amongst a bunch of Talibans, risking your life to bring the news to the world, so some asshat can talk crap about you from a couch in his Washington, DC office...or are you on a chaise-lounge in Cancun?" Navarro-Cárdenas tweeted.

During the hasty evacuation of remaining U.S. diplomatic personnel, concerns have been raised about the safety of American journalists still in Kabul.

After video footage emerged of thousands of Afghans flooding the tarmac at Kabul's airport and clinging to U.S. military planes in an effort to flee the country, Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan pleaded with Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, to help more than 200 journalists, support staff and family in Afghanistan get to safety.

In an email sent on behalf of the Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Ryan asked Sullivan to move journalists from the civilian side of the airport "to the military side where they can be safe as they await evacuation flights."