The effort to torpedo Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary tells you a lot.
The powers that be are hoping to knock out each of Trump’s nominations where he has people who will truly bring change. That’s why it’s so important to hold the line on Hegseth because caving there will embolden these kinds of tactics.
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We reported earlier about ProPublica making plans to drop what sounded like a “hit piece” on Hegseth, seemingly aimed at saying he wasn’t accepted to West Point as he claimed. But Hegseth cut that off at the pass, coming out with evidence of his acceptance letter. Then ProPublica posted on X saying they had been told by people at West Point, twice on the record, that they had no record of the acceptance, but when they found out about the evidence, they dropped the story.
READ MORE: A Cheap Shot at Pete Hegseth Points a Finger at Pentagon Factions Trying to End His Nomination
However, that raised another question, besides trying to hit Hegseth with a silly story that he headed off by getting out ahead of it. Why were people at West Point giving ProPublica this false information, if this story is true? Was someone at West Point trying to do in Hegseth and/or how could they do such a thing?
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to West Point leadership demanding answers and pulling no punches. He also made the point that they may have violated Hegseth’s rights under the Privacy Act, and that it shows incredibly bad judgment to do such a thing.
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Officials at the U.S. Military Academy should not be feeding lies to left-wing reporters about President Trump’s nominees.
West Point needs to thoroughly investigate this egregiously bad judgement and potential violation of the Privacy Act immediately. pic.twitter.com/gQpFjLbLaS
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) December 11, 2024
He asked the Superintendent of the Academy to immediately look into it. “Perhaps there’s an honest mistake here,” he said. “Although I can’t imagine what it might be,” he said pointedly.
There isn’t really one. He was perhaps being too kind when he said he can’t imagine this being “authorized or known to West Point leadership.” Unfortunately, I’m less kind and given all we’ve seen over the past several years, I can very well imagine it, given all the political things we’ve seen and the effort against Trump. Now, it could be what ProPublica is claiming West Point said isn’t the case or their reporter didn’t understand what he or she was told.
But West Point leadership needs to answer up to Cotton on the record. There needs to be accountability and action taken if there’s been a violation of the Privacy Act.
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Frankly, at this point, it seems like there needs to be a wholesale looking into all the governmental agencies and departments to see what has been infected with politics. West Point should not be involved in politics.
The Republicans need to hold together in the face of all this and stand by the nominees.
What this also shows is how Hegseth can take on the fight and win, and that’s an excellent quality for a SecDef. So thanks to ProPublica and West Point for helping prove that about him once again. They just may have helped seal the deal for him.
