‘Geppetto’s Garden Gnome’: Daily Caller Editor Issues Challenge To Kinzinger, CNN Anchor For Denigrating JD Vance’s Service

Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Geoff Ingersoll issued a challenge to former Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and CNN host Brianna Keilar on Thursday for downplaying vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s service.

Keilar and Kinzinger bothdownplayed Vance’s service in Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday by arguing he was involved in “public affairs” rather than being in a combat zone. Ingersoll, who was deployed to Iraq in 2006, said Keilar and Kinzinger should be “ashamed” for their remarks.

“When I hear stuff like this from a guy who served, I find it really disgusting,” Ingersoll told Daily Caller editorial director and WMAL host Vince Coglianese. “And, I kind of give it to Keilar and there was another one, Mehdi Hassan is kind of saying the same thing  — ‘oh, he was just a press flack’ and it’s just complete hogwash. If you were an enlisted guy and you deployed, you were part of a unit and you behaved no different than the guys in that unit. You just had a camera strapped to you.”

Ingersoll, who previously served in the Marines as a combat correspondent, then issued a hiking challenge to Keilar, Kinzinger and Hasan.

“So these three people, I mean Mehdi Hasan, and brainless Keilar and that garden gnome Adam Kinzinger, these three people should be ashamed of themselves. And I have a little challenge for them. If any of them can out hike me in any terrain, anywhere, at any time, I will donate $10,000 to the veteran organization of their choice. So I hope they hear this and I hope they take me up on the challenge … oh, you’d see cry. He’d be crying. He’s like the garden gnome come to life with those wee little legs. It’s like Geppetto’s garden gnome, Adam Kinzinger,” Ingersoll said.