Reaction to ProPublica Hit Piece on Hegseth

After Donald Trump nominated Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of Defense, the floodgates opened.

Hegseth not only had to fend off numerous allegations but also had a hit piece on ProPublica that was killed at the last second.

Hegseth Accused of Sexual Assault

After Hegseth was nominated, previous allegations of sexual assault were brought back up. The allegations were horrible, but local police investigated them, and they found no proof that any of the claims the woman made against Hegseth were accurate.

There was video of them arm-in-arm while the woman said they were arguing. She had also claimed that Hegseth prevented her from leaving the room, then sexually assaulted her.

When the allegations came to light again, Timothy Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, responded, “This police report confirms what I’ve said all along, that the incident was fully investigated, and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed.”

Former Co-Workers Come Forward

Hegseth was later rocked by allegations from former co-workers at Fox News as well as a non-profit he was running for his behavior at functions and for coming into work hungover.

Fox co-workers expressed concern that on numerous occasions, Hegseth smelled like alcohol before going on the air. They had also stated he had been quite intoxicated at events. They also stated that Hegseth had been discussing how he had gone out the night before, stating, "Everyone would be talking about it behind the scenes before he went on the air.”

There was also a report that surfaced about Hegseth’s time as the head of the Concerns Veterans for America, stating, “A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity — to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events.”

Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Hegseth, responded, “We’re not going to comment on outlandish claims laundered through The New Yorker by a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate of Mr. Hegseth’s. Get back to us when you try your first attempt at actual journalism.”

One More Hit Piece

Hegseth almost got crushed by a hit piece in ProPublica, but the report ended up being pulled right before it was set to be published, but that only happened because of a post on Hegseth on X.

ProPublica contacted Hegseth one hour before posting, telling his attorney that they only had an hour to respond to the allegations that West Point had never accepted Hegseth. When ProPublica had contacted West Point, the administrator wrongly told them that the Hegseth had never been accepted.

Hegseth responded by posting his acceptance letter on X, showing that the report was wrong. At this point, ProPublica pulled the report, but insisted that its journalists had done their job, even though they only gave Hegseth one hour to respond.

Red State writer Bonchie’s reaction was typical of what we saw from other outlets, posting, "ProPublica did not contact Pete Hegseth to get the full story. They contacted him to claim he was a liar while demanding a response within one hour not to offer his side, but to ask why he ‘lied’ and what else he ‘lied’ about. This isn't ‘journalism.’ It's unethical garbage."

Sadly, that is the state of today’s media; just be first with the story, regardless of how accurate it is. Just as Bonchie stated, it is “unethical garbage.”