News/Commentary

West Point apologizes for giving false info to leftist reporter after Hegseth blows up hit piece

December 12, 2024 | | Print Article

West Point has issued an apology after someone at the prestigious military academy provided false information about Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth to a left-wing media outlet.

The decorated military veteran and Fox News commentator, who President-elect Donald J. Trump pegged to head up the Pentagon, has been subjected to a vicious slime-and-destroy campaign to torpedo his nomination with hit pieces alleging he’s a rapist and a drunk which have already dropped. The latest one claims he’s a liar too and was intercepted and blown up before it left the launching pad.

In the aborted story that was set to be published by ProPublica, the outlet was preparing to allege that Hegseth lied about being accepted into West Point, citing information provided by the academy claiming that it had no record of his acceptance, a hoax that the embattled nominee shot down in flames.

“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,” he wrote on X, sharing a copy of the allegedly nonexistent acceptance letter. “Here’s my letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army.”

The fake news story is yet another example of how the media no longer serves its former purpose of speaking truth to power and now only launders lies. The bigger scandal than just one more lie from the propagandists in the press is that someone in West Point had given the bogus information to ProPublica, a highly disturbing breach of trust.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was among those outraged that an individual at West Point would be working with the media to besmirch Hegseth’s character.

“Officials at the U.S. Military Academy should not be feeding lies to left-wing reporters about President Trump’s nominees,” the senator said in a Wednesday post to X. “West Point needs to thoroughly investigate this egregiously bad judgement and potential violation of the Privacy Act immediately.”

Cotton shared a copy of a letter that he wrote to the military academy’s Superintendent Lt. General Steven W. Gilland.

“I’m concerned about reports that a U.S. Military Academy official has provided false information to a left-wing reporter writing a derogatory hit piece about Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defense,” Cotton wrote.

“Could you please promptly look into this matter? Perhaps there’s an honest mistake here, though I can’t imagine what it might be. But I also can’t imagine this action was authorized or known to the West Point leadership,” the Arkansas Republican said, noting that the breach could be a violation of Hegseth’s rights under the Privacy Act of 1974.

West Point reacted by apologizing for the false information that served as the basis for ProPublica’s failed smear piece.

“A review of our records indicates Peter Hegseth was offered admission to West Point in 1999 but did not attend. An incorrect statement involving Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024,” the West Point Directorate of Communications said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “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.”

In a sad sign of the times, the New York-based military academy scrubbed “Duty, Honor, Country” from its mission statement earlier this year.

Chris Donaldson
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