JD Vance blasted after comparing a U.S. war hero to ‘Forrest Gump’

Vice President JD Vance faced sharp backlash on social media after comparing Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) to the fictional character, “Forrest Gump.”

Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost both of her legs during her military service in Iraq, was one of the many Democrats who grilled Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Vance weighed in on the hearing by likening Duckworth to “Forrest Gump,” a fictional character who had an intellectual disability and physical impairment.

“Watching Tammy Duckworth obsessively interrupt Marco Rubio during this hearing is like watching Forest Gump argue with Isaac Newton,” Vance wrote on X.

His comment, which spelled the character’s name wrong, was met with fierce criticism on X. Duckworth fired back at Vance by noting that President Donald Trump dodged the draft during the Vietnam War.

“Forrest Gump ran toward danger in Vietnam. Your boss ran to his podiatrist crying bone spurs. Petty insults at the expense of people with disabilities won’t change the fact that you’re risking troops’ lives to boost Chevron’s stock price. It’s my job to hold you accountable,” Duckworth said, referring to the U.S. operations in Venezuela.

A number of critics and Democratic lawmakers also defended Duckworth after Vance’s comment.

“It’s disgusting to see the Vice President denigrate a decorated U.S. Veteran. We’re proud to stand with @SenDuckworth. Every American should,” Vote Vets, a progressive group, wrote on X.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Vance “has nothing better to do than to denigrate a war veteran and U.S. Senator.”

“Senator Duckworth was demanding answers from Secretary Rubio before this Administration puts more American lives at risk to serve President Trump’s foreign policy whims,” Durbin wrote on X.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) wrote in response to Vance: “That’s a U.S. Senator doing her job. This is a random troll tweeting at her.”

Progressive activist Shannon Watts appeared to call Vance a “misogynist” in her post.

“Misogynists hate when a woman interrupts, even if she’s a war hero,” she wrote.

Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) posted: “Imagine watching Forrest Gump and your takeaway is to mock people with disabilities.”

Ed Krassenstein, a liberal commentator, noted that Forrest Gump is “canonically intellectually disabled” and Duckworth is a “double-amputee war hero.”

“JD Vance using that comparison as a punchline isn’t edgy. It’s disgusting, it’s ableist, and just plain ignorant.You should be a shamed of yourself JD!” he added.

Democratic activist Fred Wellman wrote: “This child will never be President. Tammy has more honor in her missing legs than this pathetic joke of a small man. What an absolute disgrace to say about a US Senator by the ‘Vice President.’”

And former NBC anchor Chuck Todd questioned whether Vance even watched the movie “Forrest Gump.”

“Did he get the point of the movie?” he wrote.

In the first public hearing since the Jan. 3 raid to depose Maduro, Rubio said Trump had acted to take out a major U.S. national security threat in the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s top diplomat said America was safer and more secure as a result and that the administration would work with interim authorities to stabilize the South American country.

“We’re not going to have this thing turn around overnight, but I think we’re making good and decent progress,” Rubio said. “We are certainly better off today in Venezuela than we were four weeks ago, and I think and hope and expect that we’ll be better off in three months and six months and nine months than we would have been had Maduro still been there.”

The former Florida senator said Venezuela’s current leaders are cooperating and would soon begin to see benefits. But he backed away from remarks prepared for the hearing that Washington would not hesitate to take further military action should those leaders not fully accept Trump’s demands.

“I can tell you right now with full certainty, we are not postured to nor do we intend or expect to have to take any military action in Venezuela at any time,” Rubio said. “I think it would require the emergence of an imminent threat of the kind that we do not anticipate at this time.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.