First appearance on Fox: The U.S. Military Academy at West Point has apologized after an employee incorrectly said Pete Hegseth was not accepted to the historic military academy, and now lawmakers are demanding accountability.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) accused West Point administrators of trying to “sabotage” President-elect Trump's nomination of Hegseth to be secretary of defense.
The bank is now seeking information on how the error occurred.
“As you know, ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger falsely claimed that Secretary of Defense candidate Pete Hegseth was lying when he said he was admitted to West Point but decided not to attend. “I was preparing to publish an article about the issue,'' Banks wrote.
“In order to pre-empt publication of the blatantly false article, Mr. Hegseth published the West Point acceptance letter, proving the truth of his claims and leading ProPublica to kill the article.” Mr. Eisinger defended his reporting, claiming that the West Point OPA told him 'twice on record' that Hegseth had not even applied to West Point.'
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Congressman Jim Banks (pictured left) wants to know how West Point was able to “falsely” tell a reporter that Pete Hegseth (right) was not accepted. (Getty Images)
“It is outrageous that West Point officials would interfere so grossly in the political process and make false claims about a presidential candidate.
“Even in the unlikely scenario that OPA accidentally made false claims more than once or twice, OPA did not fully verify the information was accurate before sharing it with reporters. This is an act of incompetence that cannot be tolerated.”
He called on the school to provide Congress with “all correspondence and documentation regarding how the West Point OPA falsely accused Mr. Hegseth of lying on his application.”
Reached for comment, West Point apologized for the error and said academy records show Hegseth was accepted in 1999 but did not attend.
Pete Hegseth says after meeting with senators: “I'm going to stand here and fight this fight.''
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Hegseth to be secretary of defense. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“A false statement regarding Hegseth's admission to the U.S. Military Academy was issued by an employee on December 10, 2024. After further review of our archived database, the employee certifies that this statement is false. “The Academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error,” the West Point Communications Directorate said.
Hegseth is an Army National Guard veteran who served on tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This comes as Trump continues to meet with senators as part of the approval process to join the next Trump administration.
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Banks himself is an Army veteran and a staunch ally of Hegseth. His support will be critical next year after winning a landslide victory in November to become Indiana's next senator.
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Eisinger, ProPublica's editor, defended the outlet's handling of the situation in a series of lengthy posts about X.
“No, we're not publishing articles. This is how journalism is supposed to be. Hear something, confirm something. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as many times as necessary. End ” he said.
“Pete Hegseth will shake up the Pentagon and eliminate meth from our military and military academies,” Banks told Fox News Digital. It seems like they are trying to block the nomination.”
