CNN’s public relations team fired back at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday after he mocked chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward for comments she made while reporting on the scene in Kabul. Sharing a deceptively edited clip from Pizzagate-promoting provocateur Jack Posobiec, Cruz wrote on Twitter: “Is there an enemy of America for whom @CNN WON’T cheerlead? (In mandatory burkas, no less.)”

CNN PR didn’t mince words while defending Ward, who has spent years reporting from the frontline of Afghanistan and other extremely dangerous spots in the world—and referenced Cruz notoriously fleeing a Texas winter storm in the process. “Rather than running off to Cancun in tough times, @clarissaward is risking her life to tell the world what’s happening,” the official CNN Communications Twitter account posted. “That’s called bravery. Instead of RTing a conspiracy theorist’s misleading soundbite, perhaps your time would be better spent helping Americans in harm’s way.”

Conservatives and right-wing media have ridiculed Ward for noting in her report from Kabul on Monday that Taliban fighters are trying to portray themselves to Afghan citizens as non-threatening. “They’re just chanting ‘Death to America,’ but they seem friendly at the same time. It’s utterly bizarre,” she noted, emphasizing the contradictory nature of their behavior. At the same time, Ward—now wearing a hijab to stay in line with Taliban rules for women—pointed out the “bitter fear that is consuming so many Afghans in this new, bizarre world” and there are “far fewer” women on the streets now.