A leftwing hack from Pro Publica put together a smear on Pete Hegseth claiming that he was never applied to get into West Point, from which he graduated.
Note that that already doesn't even make sense -- you can't graduate from a school you were never applied to get into.
But the leftwing reputation-assassins don't need their smears to make sense. Their Soyjack readership just wants to read lies about their enemies.
Hegseth found out Pro Publica was about to run this entirely-fabricated smear and published his acceptance letter welcoming him to West Point.
The leftwing reputation-assassin now crows, But I didn't actually publish the entirely-fictional smear piece, now that you've pre-emptively disproven it. Voila! This is just Great Journalism in Action! You're welcome!
No seriously:
Mollie
@MZHemingway
In fact, using armies of Democrat-funded activist reporters to harass your political opponents and write irresponsibly framed propaganda while protecting your political allies -- leaving them free of the harassment and going after their opponents -- is not journalism.
Tony Kinnett
@TheTonus
The West Point public affairs lie about @PeteHegseth's offer of admission is even more insane when you consider what goes into applying for a service academy.
My application to USMA took two full years. It included sending West Point my SAT, ACT, fitness tests, and a recommendation from then Rep. Mike Pence. Background checks. Extracurriculars & essays on civics and service.
It's why most of us who received our "Big Fat Envelope" offer of admission still hang onto them years & decades later. For some of us, it was a lot of effort.
West Point was involved every step of the way. They had documentation of everything.
Because there are so few slots for candidates, every application is monitored very closely. For public affairs to state on the record twice with "100%" certainty Hegseth had never applied is either gross laziness or malicious dishonesty.
Either one is a violation of the Cadet's Creed--much less those stationed at USMA.
Too bad there's no one who ever served in the military working in leftwing media propaganda operations, or else they'd have the basic knowledge to knock down obvious hoaxes like this.
Some, like Mary Margeret Olsen, pointed out that this guy had wanted to publish a false smear, but now stumbled into a true story -- why are leftwing administrators at West Point giving reporters fake stories to smear the incoming SecDef?
But of course this "reporter" isn't interested in that truthful story. Wrong target!
West Point said an employee made a mistake by claiming Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the Defense Department, was not accepted into the military academy.
An academy spokesperson told The Washington Times on Wednesday that Mr. Hegseth, a retired Army major, was offered acceptance into West Point's class of 2003 but an employee provided a media outlet "an incorrect statement" on Dec. 10 involving his admission, apparently without reviewing an archived database.
The employee erroneously told ProPublica that Mr. Hegseth did not even apply to West Point. The publication was preparing to write a story countering Mr. Hegseth's claim he was accepted into the vaunted Army academy.
"The academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error," the West Point directorate of communications said in a statement.
Sure. Then fire the woman who violated school privacy policies to push this lie out.
Hegseth is getting the Full Kavanaugh.