If you’re not up to speed with the recent SNAFU at West Point around Pete Hegseth’s nomination, it’s worth noting. Last Wednesday, ProPublica was on the verge of publishing a bombshell report contradicting Hegseth’s claim that he had been accepted to West Point in 1999. Apparently, ProPublica had been assured by West Point – twice – that Pete had never applied for admission. But this was demonstrably untrue, and when Pete got wind of the pending story, he simply posted his acceptance letter online.
Obviously, ProPublica had been misinformed by a government bureaucrat. And so, they did the only thing they could do – they killed their bombshell story that accused Pete Hegseth of lying about being accepted to West Point. What they did NOT do, however, was write a story about the bureaucrat(s) at West Point who misinformed them. The question is why?
Robby Soave at Reason writes, “If ProPublica published that story, then the outlet could have taken a real victory lap: They tracked down the truth of a rumor about Hegseth’s record and found out it wasn’t true, despite a prestigious educational institution actively misleading them. Isn’t that a story? Or is the story only important if it’s damaging to Hegseth?”
Charlie Cooke at National Review is more concerned with the motivations at West Point. He writes, “I find it hard to believe that West Point would deliberately lie about such a thing. I also find it hard to believe that its staff would be so lazy or inept as to screw something like this up by mistake. This was not some random inquiry; it was connected to an extremely consequential political decision and related to the reputation of a high-profile figure who, if he is accepted by the Senate, will soon occupy one of the most important jobs in the United States. How is it possible that West Point did not make one hundred percent sure that it was correct in its denial?”
When I read this, I thought about Pete’s book, The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. In it, he makes it absolutely clear that bureaucrats are to blame for the mess our military has become. In fact, he calls for a wholesale restructuring of the the military, and talks at length about the absolute imperative of returning the military to the meritocracy it once was. I also thought about what he said on my podcast several months ago, and what he said he would do if here were ever in charge. https://bit.ly/4gcOv33. A short clip is below.
Obviously, I can’t prove that West Point was deliberately trying to make Pete look bad, or that ProPublica would have moved forward with their “bombshell” story had Pete not proved them wrong before publishing. I can only assure you that LOTS of bureaucrats currently employed by the US Military do NOT want to work for Pete Hegseth. And it seems equally clear that ProPublica isn’t all that interested in writing stories about bureaucrats who actively and repeatedly misinform them. And that’s a pity.
Mike’s Facebook Page