CNN host Anderson Cooper and colleagues managed to wring a laugh out of a warning that Iranian missiles were headed Israel’s way during their broadcast from Tel Aviv early Monday. (Watch the video below.)
Cooper and reporters Clarissa Ward and Jeremy Diamond kept their cool as a 10-minute alert urged them to seek refuge in a bomb shelter. Cooper calmly explained the system and noted the trio would try to broadcast from the shelter and perhaps on the way down.
“Do you guys wanna …” Cooper began.
“Should we go down or do you wanna finish this?” Ward interjected.
Cooper laughed. “Uhhhhhh, we should probably go down,” he said.
“We should probably go down,” Ward echoed with a smile.
While the journalists waited for the crew to prepare for transmission below, Ward calmly analyzed Iran’s retaliation options after the U.S. reportedly crippled much of Iran’s nuclear capabilities with three surprise bombings.
Diamond noted that Israelis have faced a significantly larger threat from Iran’s arsenal than what militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah have fired at the Jewish state. (The building damage has been significant, while the death toll, at least 24 Israelis, has been relatively low from Iranian counter-strikes, Diamond said. Israel began the hostilities with an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites before the U.S. launched its own operation.)
Cooper walked viewers through the corridors of his hotel being evacuated. The three conversed further as they waited for the elevator.
The transmission froze as the journalists descended in the lift, prompting Kristen Holmes to take over the broadcast from the States. But the feed cut quickly back to Anderson and Co. in the deep basement.
As they waited for the 90-second alert to impact, Anderson noted with a laugh they had no other options at the moment for reporting. “We’re stuck talking with each other.”
Ward calmly revisited her discussion of Iranian options to respond to the U.S. offensive.
Business as usual in unusual circumstance.
According to Israeli reports, Iranian missiles struck a power plant in southern Israel and another was intercepted in the north early Monday.
