Will County Gazette

Anti-Trump critic U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) got riled up when a conservative journalist questioned his combat record.

“You're a glorified part-time bus driver who hides his mediocrity behind a uniform and participation trophies,” conservative journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez tweeted. “My mother swinging a sandal at insolent grandchildren has seen more combat than you. Uber Eats drivers in Chicago have seen more combat than you.”

Kinzinger’s tweet was in response to Gonzalez’s characterization of his “combat” career. Kinzinger, who claims residence in Channahon, flew tanker missions as a member of the United States Air Force in South America, Guam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I have five or six air medals for 120 combat missions that may disagree with you. But you know that,” Kinzinger tweeted in response to a tweet by Gonzalez. “I do shake though when people beg for war. I’d assume anyone that knows war does too. It’s chickenhawks like you that don’t.”

Gonzalez works as associate editor at Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.

Gonzalez piled on with a barrage of one-liner quips as replies to Kinzinger.

"@AdamKinzinger's grift depends on people not knowing that his job has kept him well away from the fighting. 'Combat mission' is a meaningless term – it's a literal participation trophy or more like one of those gold stars kids get at schools for attendance,” Gonzalez tweeted. “Yeah, I've flown 'combat missions' too in this sense: Picking up my Mexican food in the shady parts of San Diego at night. That is as much or more risk that Kinzinger has braved.”

Kinzinger is one of a handful of anti-Trump voices in the U.S. House and was only one of 10 GOP members of the U.S. House to vote for former President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

He loses his seat in 2022 after bowing out of re-election following a remap and his notorious stance against Trump diminished his chances of continuing in office, Illinois Valley Times reported.

Kinzinger has been in office as a congressman since 2011.