Whatever opposition to Pete Hegseth that existed in the Senate on the Republican side dried up on Thursday. Hegseth had been in a brutal fight to win the nomination up until this point, but the liberal outlet ProPublica attacked Hegseth and got schooled in the process. He's likely all but a shoo-in now.

ProPublica is a deeply funded left-wing outlet that regularly attacks Republicans. In this case, they sent an email toHegseth and his attorney alleging that he'd never gotten admitted into West Point Academy. ProPublica claimed it was a tight deadline and gave Hegseth an hour to respond.

ProPublica's journalists wrote in an email, "Why did Mr. Hegseth say he got in West Point when that is not true? How can Mr. Hegseth be Secretary of Defense given that he has made false statements about getting into the military's most prestigious academy"?

That email was leaked to the Daily Caller, which showed ProPublica's slant. The Daily Caller notes "that a West Point spokesperson told ProPublica Hegseth never even applied to the school. [ProPublica] then asserts, seemingly based on West Point's statement at face value, that Hegseth was lying."

Hegseth responded to the entire thing on X/Twitter, posting a picture of his acceptance letter to West Point. That was all the evidence you needed that ProPublica's story was bunk. If they actually did talk to someone at West Point, that person would have lied or had no idea what they were talking about.

Whoever told ProPublica to search that story was either wrong or lying. ProPublica brushed all this off by claiming that what they did was "real journalism" because they never ran the piece. But it's clear they never investigated further than their lead. They accused Hegseth of lying, he fired back, and now ProPublica has an egg on its face (again, but that's another story).

Once again, having a site like X/Twitter is invaluable because it helps expose the underbelly of this kind of journalism. In the span of a few hours, ProPublica went from an urgent story to claiming they're good journalists for not running anything.

In truth, had they run a knowingly false story, as Hegseth called it, they'd have opened themselves up to a libel lawsuit. Everyone involved knows that, which is why ProPublica is taking great pains to emphasize that they never ran anything as an outlet.

The funniest part of this all, however, is the outcome. ProPublica walked into this story believing they could derail and force Hegseth out of the nomination process. They wanted to claim that they'd knocked out one of Trump's nominees.

Instead, the exact opposite is happening. ProPublica likely did Hegseth the greatest favor by getting Republicans to link arms across the board against a liberal media attack. This is a similar phenomenon to what happened with Donald Trump when all the legal cases started swirling.

Everyone linked arms on the right against the left's attacks and moved forward. Hegseth is getting a similar boost here. Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst had been a potential roadblock against Hegseth, but now she's softening her position.

She's not alone. Other Republicans in Congress are sounding a similar note on Hegseth. Additionally, even Democrats like Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman have a softer tone toward Hegseth.

It's not all because of the ProPublica story. Hegseth has made the rounds on Capital Hill and is meeting with senators. That charm offensive is working so far, pushing away the hard road he had been facing.

But the ProPublica story is a turning point. Whereas Hegseth was fighting an uphill battle before, the liberals at ProPublica tilted the field in his favor. In the highly likely scenario, now that Hegseth is confirmed, he'll have ProPublica partially to thank. In fact, he should probably go ahead and send them a Christmas card to boost his nomination campaign.

The other story running underneath all of this is about what source lied about Hegseth and told left-wing outlets to investigate. That is a noteworthy piece of information in this entire ordeal, and ProPublica is trying to cover itself in journalistic glory for not running a false news story.

In truth, that source should get outed. A real journalist would crush a bad source to ensure those kinds of poor leads no longer show up. Someone clearly believed they could get ProPublica to run a false story, and judging by the email ProPublica sent Hegseth's lawyer, that source was very nearly correct.

If Pete Hegseth wasn't such a pack rat and kept things like a West Point acceptance letter, a place he didn't attend, he'd be facing allegations in this story he wouldn't be able to rebut.

Congrats to ProPublica for not running a false story, though. And also congress to ProPublica for helping the target of its story win the nomination to be Defense Secretary.