CNN’s Ward: ‘Extremely Difficult’ and ‘Dangerous’ for Americans to Get into Airport in Afghanistan

On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward responded to President Joe Biden’s claim in his speech earlier in the day that Americans are able to get to the airport in Afghanistan by stating that “we had difficulty getting into the airport. Working out how to get into this airport is like a Rubik’s cube.” And that while getting into the airport as an American is technically doable, “it’s extremely difficult and it is dangerous.”

Ward said, “Well, we had difficulty getting into the airport. Working out how to get into this airport is like a Rubik’s cube. You have to sit and go through a whole different slew of factors and contingency plans and trying to get help from some different places. I can’t get into the details of how we did get in, but it’s very difficult. It’s very difficult. It’s not a simple process at all. And you might remember, I did a live shot a couple of days ago outside the airport. I was talking to people with green cards, people who had all their SIV applications accepted, their visa, and they couldn’t get close. They couldn’t get close because it’s thousands of people crushing into each other, Taliban fighters with truncheons and whips pushing people back, shots being fired into the air. Then you go through another layer, and you’ve got Afghan Special Forces commandos…then you’ve got the U.S. processing. I mean, anyone who says that any American can get in here is — yeah, I mean, technically, it’s possible, but it’s extremely difficult and it is dangerous.”

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