Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be our next secretary of defense appears to have dodged a bullet. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) seemed to be a Republican who might be poised to deliver a kill shot. She’s changed her tune, possibly due to threats of being primaried and the anonymously sourced attacks against Mr. Hegseth. They’ve all fallen flat.
Yet, ProPublica was reportedly working up a hit piece on Mr. Hegseth regarding his application to West Point. He was accepted but didn’t attend. Hegseth’s team gave the publication the acceptance letter, which is why they dropped the story, but they still whiffed: West Point seemed to have blatantly lied about Mr. Hegseth: They told ProPublica he never applied. That's the real story now.
We understand that ProPublica (the Left Wing hack group) is planning to publish a knowingly false report that I was not accepted to West Point in 1999.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 11, 2024
Here’s my letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army. pic.twitter.com/UOhOVZSfhJ
Hegseth has said that he got into West Point but didn’t attend.
— Jesse Eisinger (@eisingerj) December 11, 2024
We asked West Pt public affairs, which told us twice on the record that he hadn’t even applied there.
We reached out. Hegseth's spox gave us his acceptance letter.
We didn't publish a story.
That's journalism. https://t.co/TceZdglkmL
But you *have* a story: West Point twice lying on the record about @PeteHegseth's application and acceptance. https://t.co/Ou22GNoRMO
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 11, 2024
West Point public affairs lied to ProPublica, wrongly said Pete Hegseth never even applied to the academy.
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) December 11, 2024
Hegseth responded with a copy of his 1999 West Point acceptance letter, killing ProPublica's story.
Big error from West Point. https://t.co/sLpFDCoq3F
"Journalism" is reporting West Point's error.
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) December 11, 2024
We reached out-here is their official statement
West Point didn't properly search their records, which showed Hegseth was offered admission in 1999 and 2003.
Now the story is whether it was simple error or something more sinister https://t.co/WsB6EuYslH pic.twitter.com/F87OTjmwvE
Pretty big mistake, made in two on-the-record statements to ProPublica, only corrected and kept from publication bc @PeteHegseth has a two-decade old copy of his acceptance letter. Would love to hear more about how this happened at WP and how they plan to prevent mistakes. https://t.co/5EqtLEoQk0
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) December 11, 2024
Why did West Point lie twice?
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