Clarissa Ward, CNN’s senior international correspondent, gave a report from Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, after the Taliban’s control of the country.
Ward was previously chastised for saying Taliban Insurrectionists were “just chanting ‘death to America,’ but they seem friendly at the same time” in an edited video. Ward said the situation was “utterly bizarre” in the full clip.
Ward said that she and her crew were “accosted” right outside Kabul Airport, forcing her to conceal her face. She showed footage of a Taliban member approaching her and a producer with the butt of a rifle after showing a Taliban man taking the safety off his AK-47 and running through a group of civilians.
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“You can see that some of these Taliban fighters, they’re just hopped up on adrenaline, or I don’t know what,” Ward said. “It’s a very dicey situation.”
She added, “When the fighters are told we have permission to report, they lower their weapons and let us pass.”
“Two Taliban fighters just came up with their pistols, and they were ready to pistol whip [our producer who was taking video]. We had to intervene and scream…” pic.twitter.com/3mvCCTlSQR
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 18, 2021
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Here’s the moment that @clarissaward and crew were confronted by the Taliban on the streets of Kabul. pic.twitter.com/2ueKYbR8xg
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 18, 2021
Ward told Jake Tapper, host of “The Lead,” that she and her team were “exposed to all sorts of insanity.”
“And you can imagine, Jake, I mean, this is us. We are a news crew. We are clearly Western. And still, we were exposed to all sorts of insanity,” Ward emphasized. “If you’re an ordinary Afghan trying to get past those Taliban guards and trying to get into the airport, I mean, I just don’t see how you’re able to do it. I don’t see how you’re able to really get in unless you have some kind of a contact or a connection or you’re able to arrange something somehow.”
“Frankly, Jake, there’s no real hope,” she added.
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