Kris Van Cleave is a congressional correspondent for CBS News based in Washington, DC. Previously, Van Cleave spent more than five years as the 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.
Most recently, Van Cleave reported on how the travel industry adjusted to a COVID-19 world; a CBS News years-long investigation on a dangerously outdated safety standard for vehicle seats that sparked a congressional investigation; the helicopter crash that claimed the life of Kobe Bryant and others; on Black Lives Matter protests in Washington; and the January 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol. His coverage of auto-safety issues earned him an Emmy nomination 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 Osama bin Laden was killed, broadcast from Haiti after the devastating earthquake, and traveled to Afghanistan to cover local troops. Van Cleave also anchored NewsChannel 8’s 6:00 p.m. newscast.
Previously, Van Cleave was a reporter at XETV/Fox6 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 twice received the Emmy Award for the D.C. region’s best general assignment reporter (2007 and 2010) and was named 2010 and 2011 “Best Reporter” by the Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association. His work has also been recognized by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the San Diego Press Club, the Colorado Associated Press, the University of Southern California and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. 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.
