Mollie Hemingway of the Federalist highlights interesting developments in the attempt to secure support for President-elect Donald Trump’s top defense nominee.

Longtime Democrat activist and ABC News host George Stephanopoulos gave Republicans two wins this weekend. The first was settling with Donald Trump for $15 million, plus $1 million in lawyer’s fees, for lying about the president elect. Stephanopoulos had falsely characterized the result of one part of the Democrat Party’s lawfare strategy to bankrupt and imprison Trump and otherwise prevent his election.

The second gift to Republicans was the inadvertent showcasing on Stephanopoulos’ Sunday show of how the GOP can effectively maneuver against the media complex and weak Republicans who carry water for the permanent D.C. bureaucracy.

Stephanopoulos asked a panel of D.C. insiders if Pete Hegseth, who attended the Army-Navy football game this weekend with Trump, had “turned the tide” in his pursuit of confirmation as the secretary of defense. Hegseth, a decorated veteran and former Fox News host, had been the target of a media campaign to force him out as the nominee.

Republican strategist Reince Priebus said Hegseth had turned the tide because “[y]ou’re seeing Trump double down” on his nomination by reiterating his desire to see him confirmed and publicly showing his expectation that he would be confirmed. He also highlighted how corporations were coming out of the woodwork to support the inauguration, something that was unthinkable eight years ago, as the battle over Hegseth was heating up. …

… The four panelists more or less helped explain how to fight the constant information operations deployed by the media and other Democrats in order to get weak Republicans to assist in the sabotage of Republican policy goals. Republicans should show strength and conviction in the face of obvious media campaigns against their nominees or policy ideas. And Republicans need to remind weak elected officials that they should fear their voters fare more.