Hegseth Victim of Fake News Reporting on West Point Acceptance
As part of Hegseth’s bio, he stated that he had been accepted at West Point but chose not to attend.
That story was supposedly fact-checked and debunked, only the fact checkers got it all wrong.
The Fake News Report
Left-wing nonprofit ProPublica may have just finally proven to the entire country that it is nothing more than an extremist left-wing rag.
The publication had a report that was going to be published claiming that Pete Hegseth had lied about being accepted to West Point. Even though the publication never published the report, an email exchange between reporter Justin Elliot and Hegseth's attorneys surfaced.
The email gave Hegseth’s attorneys one hour to reply in regard to their report that was going to go live, asking, "Why did Mr. Hegseth say he got into West Point when that is not true?"
Blowing It Up
With Hegseth’s claim being questioned, he published his acceptance letter from West Point, saying that he found out the ProPublica was about to publish “a knowingly false report” on his West Point acceptance.
ProPublica editor Jesse Eisinger shot back that the publication had done “real” reporting, and once they found out the report was not true, they decided to kill the story.
But again, the reporter only gave Hegseth’s attorney an hour to respond before filing, writing, “I’m reaching out with an urgent request for comment for your client Pete Hegseth. We’re moving quickly so please let me know if you or he would like to comment as soon as possible. Our deadline is in one hour.” So were it not for the Hegseth post of his letter of acceptance, that story likely would have gone live.
West Point is far from innocent here, as two different representatives apparently confirmed that Hegseth NEVER applied to school, which was obviously wrong.
GOP Goes Ballistic
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), who has been behind Hegseth from the first day, shredded the publication and West Point over the error, stating, "As you know, ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger had been preparing to publish a story falsely claiming that nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, was lying when he said that he was admitted into West Point but decided not to attend.
"To preempt the publication of a blatantly false story, Hegseth published his West Point acceptance letter, proving the veracity of his claim and leading ProPublica to kill the story. Eisinger defended his reporting, claiming that West Point OPA told him ‘twice on the record’ that Hegseth had not even applied to West Point."
He continued, "It is outrageous that West Point officials would so grossly interfere in a political process and make false claims regarding a presidential nominee. Even in the unlikely scenario of OPA mistakenly making false claims not once but twice, it is an unforgivable act of incompetence that OPA did not make absolutely sure their information was accurate before sharing it with a reporter."
West Point then responded, "An incorrect statement involving Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024. Upon further review of an archived database, employees realized this statement was in error. Hegseth was offered acceptance to West Point as a prospective member of the Class of 2003. The academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error.”
It’s a fair question to wonder if this was an accident or if someone was just trying to hurt Hegseth because we all know that the first story is the one that gets the grip and attention, and the retraction and apology barely make the headlines. Knowing the attitude against Trump, I am going to go out on a limb and say that I just don’t believe this was an innocent mistake, and I very much look forward to the results of the investigation into this matter.
