- Kris Van Cleave
April 2023
Emmy Award-winning journalist Kris Van Cleave is the senior transportation correspondent for CBS News based in Phoenix, Ariz., where he also serves as a national correspondent reporting and contributing to all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.
Van Cleave covered the 117th Congress as a CBS News congressional correspondent providing live reports from the west lawn during the January 6 attack on the Capitol — coverage that was part of CBS MORNINGS’ Emmy win for Best Live Newscast. While on Capitol Hill, he covered the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, the investigation into the January 6 attack and the passage of the landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Before covering Congress, Van Cleave spent more than five years as CBS News’ transportation correspondent beginning in September 2015, and before that, he served as a correspondent for CBS Newspath, the Network’s 24-hour television newsgathering service for CBS stations and broadcasters around the world.
During his time at CBS News, Van Cleave worked in New York, Washington, Dallas and Phoenix. He developed expertise in covering transportation accidents including the 737 Max investigation, the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and the deadly Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. As the pandemic raged, Van Cleave reported on how the travel industry adjusted to a COVID-19 world and covered the social justice protests in the nation’s capital.
His yearslong CBS News investigation into a dangerously outdated safety standard for vehicle seats sparked a congressional investigation and prompted legislation passed by Congress to improve auto safety improvements in 2021. His coverage of automotive safety issues also earned him two Emmy nominations for investigative reporting.
Prior to joining CBS Newspath, Van Cleave was a reporter and anchor for nearly eight years at WJLA-TV and NewsChannel 8 in Washington, D.C. While there, he covered the mass shooting at Washington’s Navy Yard, the Virginia Tech massacre and the 2012 South Carolina GOP presidential primary. He also reported from outside the White House the night news broke that Osama bin Laden was killed, broadcasted from Haiti after the devastating earthquake and traveled to Afghanistan to cover local troops. Van Cleave also anchored NewsChannel 8’s 6:00 PM newscast.
Previously, Van Cleave was a reporter at XETV/Fox 6 News in San Diego, Calif., and KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs, Colo. He began his television career as the producer of KTLA-TV/Tribune’s nationally syndicated “CyberGuy Report.”
Van Cleave has earned 12 regional Emmy Awards, nine regional Edward R. Murrow Awards and was part of ABC7’s team of reporters honored with the 2010 and 2014 National Edward R. Murrow Awards for breaking news coverage. He was twice named Best Reporter by the Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association. In 2011, Van Cleave was selected as a RIAS Berlin Komission Fellow, and traveled to Pakistan in 2013 as an East-West Center Fellow. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California.
