Levi Johnston: My Family's Not White Trash

Tells Maggie Rodriguez Palins Spreading Lies About Him; He Seeks To Set Record Straight

(CBS)  Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate in last year's presidential race, is a new grandmother.

But a war of words is escalating between her camp and Levi Johnston, the father of Tripp, the baby Palin's teenage daughter, Bristol, had in late December. Levi and Bristol have broken off their engagement.

On "The Tyra Banks Show" earlier this week, Johnston said Sarah Palin almost certainly knew the two teens were having sex before Bristol got pregnant, and he admitted the obvious -- that they didn't always practice safe sex.

Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez sat down with Johnston Tuesday night -- and it appears the bad blood in this family feud is getting thicker.

Johnston insists the Palins won't let him take Tripp out alone. He says he was heartbroken he and Bristol split -- and the campaign contributed to the breakup. He also says the Palins are lying about him and his family.

Johnston told Rodriguez, "We're not cashing in on their name, you know. I'm just trying to get my side of the story out there and letting people know who I am."

Asked what the biggest misconception about him is, Johnston said, "Probably that my family's white trash."

And he said Tripp already means the world to him, remarking, "Tripp's everything to me. He's my little boy. I don't know what I'd do without him. When I hold him, it's an amazing feeling. I just shake, you know?"

Was having Tripp a mistake?

"Not at all," Johnston replied. "No. I wouldn't call any baby a mistake. I mean, I love him more than anything. I wouldn't trade him for the world."

But now that he and Bristol have split up, Johnson continues to say, he isn't allowed to have private time with Tripp, even though he once lived in Sarah Palin's house.

Palin's camp says he never lived there, and Johnston is lying about the former living arrangements.

But he's fighting back.

Rodriguez laid it right on the line, observing to Johnston, "Sarah Palin, through a spokesperson, has denied a lot of the things you're saying. So, either you're lying or Sarah Palin is lying. Which is it?"

"They said I didn't live there," Johnston said. "(They say) I 'stayed there.' I was like, 'OK, whatever you want to call it' -- I had all my stuff there. So, if you wanna call it 'staying there,' that's fine."

"You had all your things there -- toothbrush, pajamas -- stayed there every night?"

"For awhile, yeah. So..."

"So, they're lying," Rodriguez said, summing up his statements.

"Yeah," Johnston confirmed.

Mercede Johnston, Levi's sister, backed him up, telling Rodriguez, "He was living there. I hadn't seen him for two months. He lived there. They can't say, 'Oh, no, he just stayed.' That's an absolute lie."

What was Sarah Palin like when times were good between Levi and Bristol, Rodriguez asked Levi.

"She was great," Levi recalled. "She treated me like a mom. I would look at her like a second mom. I think she'd do anything for me, at the time. And now, I don't know."

Levi says things changed after baby Tripp was born, and when Palin returned to Alaska after losing the election.

[gullybore]

GLORIFIED OUT OF WEDLOCK BIRTH:
The media gives one the impression that only people of a certain ilk have children out of wedlock and those same children have absent fathers.
I am appalled to see that we are glorifying one birth and scorning the other where there is no difference. I can assure you that there are many ,many parents, from among those we criticize, that would no allow their daughter and partner to live in their house together unless they are married. I consider Sarah Palin someone that is lower than white trash. Levi has a right to see his child, if it is really his, and that right shall not be denied.

[mari1963]

They sound like white trash to me. Who's getting up at night with this baby? Who feeds him? Who bathes him? Who gave birth to him? Who? Who? Levi? <----------- NOT! What a loser! This guy needs to disappear.

[copper05]

ew ew ew , plz dont let him take his clothes off. no body wants to see his ode organs.. we know what one looks like already

[ladypirate2]

ainttaken: I'm just saying that you democrats should clean up your own party and make sure that your polititians live clean lives before you start criticizing others! You have a blue nosed "holier than thou" arrogant attitude! You think you're better than us republicans! You need to climb down off your high horse because you're no better than we are! You have your share of people in your party that haven't lived exactly chaste lives, too! Some of your polititians have done downright scandalous things and have even committed crimes!

[ladypirate2]

FlangeSqueal9: You need to go back to school and learn to count to nine! TRIG (NOT TROG) was born in April. That was PROVEN by a statement that was released last fall by Sarah Palin's pediatrician. It takes nine full months to carry a baby to full term. There is NO WAY ON EARTH Bristol could have given birth in April and then given birth again just EIGHT MONTHS later in December to another full term nine months baby! Any woman will tell you that it can't be done! It's physically impossible! You, and all of the others like you who think that TRIG is actually Bristol's child, might as well give up on this argument because YOU HAVE LOST the argument! You lost it when Bristol gave birth to baby Tripp in December and not late January, which would have been the case if Trig had been her child!

And another thing, children like Trig are no longer called Mongoloid! He is a special needs child who was born with Downs syndrome! He is also only about 1/4 Eskimo. The rest is white caucasian. There is nothing wrong with being Eskimo either or white! He is just as good as your children or any other child! I myself am 1/8 Choctaw Native American and the rest, like Trig, is white caucasian. I am very proud of my heritage and I am just as good as you or anyone else! Trig and his father Todd should be very proud of their Eskimo blood! They have nothing to be ashamed of!

Also you have no right to say anything about the moral fiber of the republicans when you have people in the democratic party like Ted Kennedy who drove his car off a bridge and ran off and let the girl that he was having an affair with drown in his car. He was also a married man at the time! Then there is Bill Clinton who is known to have had sex with just about every prostitute in Little Rock, AR while he was the governor of Arkansas. There was also a little scandal called the White Water affair which was a real estate scam that he and Hillary ran while he was governor. Then after he was elected president there was the Monica Lewinsky scandal. No you democrats have no right to question the moral fiber of the republicans and, in this case the Palin family, when you have people like Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and others like them in your party!

[sero5]

Palins - the ultimate triumph of Christian family values. Teenage daughter Bristol chooses play around with Levi, and oops!, here comes baby. Levi is a high school dropout. Levi's mom is busted for drug dealing. Levi wants to bring his son home to see his grandma and her drug emporium.

[ohiobabyboomer]

All upstanding, dignified and humble people air their dirty laundry in public and in the national spotlight---you didn't know that????

All this is the most pitiful information (and I use that term loosely) I have EVER seen in print. This boy and the families involved are BEYOND any name calling.

Hope the kid has a normal IQ, at least.

[ladypirate2]

stchokiller: From what I've read I don't think it's Levi refusing to marry Bristol. It's the other way around. She refuses to marry him. She broke up with him. For some reason, unknown to us, she doesn't think he's ready to be a husband. She also obviously doesn't consider him to be a fit father. I think she might have a good reason to feel that way and it's something that the public doesn't know about. After all she knows him much better than we do!

And another thing, in case you don't know it, politicians don't have to ask for our permission to breed any more than we have to ask for their permission when we breed! They have the same rights and freedoms that we do!

[shurch4truth]

Oh yes, if I wanted to prove to the world that I wasn't white trash, the very first thing I would do is not shave that day, wear my hair long and don a flannel shirt.

Posted by CnUHerMeNow at 3:56 AM : Apr 20, 2009

If before now you did not know what a snob remark is then read this and you will understand what a snob remark is.

whiskers + a certain hair stype + flannel shirt does not equal white trash

what does equal a form of people trash is making this kind of remark

[credibility2]

None of this would've occurred had these two opted for using protection. Unfortunately the boys generally don't want protection and the girls think they're doing the right thing by cow-towing to the hormonal whims of the boy. Anyone doing this is trash, regardless of what color they are. We've become too accepting and non-judgmental and stigmatizing of this rampant promiscuity which has lowered our standards of morality, decency and lifestyle.

[peacefulperson]

I'm still trying to figure out why this silly family squabble is national news.

Hello! The people who live next door to me are having the same kind of squabble with their teen daughter's baby's father! Why isn't THAT news, too.

It's the same kind of fighting that happens in practically every family with teen parents. It's part of the reason it's such a bad idea to get pregnant as a teen. Everyone involved lacks the maturity to deal with the real issues and the child has to grow up with his family split apart by distance and fighting.

Enough already! The only thing that comes from these articles is that it illustrates how miserable it is to be a teen parent.

[skyk-2009]

Recently he also released sensitive CIA information about their interrogation technics to the public. He is also getting very friendly with Hugo Chavez and other communist leaders. He has even scheduled a meeting with the leader of North Korea. I ask you again, is Obama doing any better? So far I don't think so! He's only been in office three months and he's made a whole list of mistakes and according to you democrats he's supposed to be the smart one!
Posted by ladypirate2 at 2:45 AM : Apr 20, 2009

Yes! YES! He IS doing much better indeed and you need only to look at what the People of the WORLD think about us as a people to see that. Why you poor people are so afraid of leaders who couldn't mount an attack against this nation is beyond me but you continue to support policies that have been NOTHING but failure and attack any attempt to change those policies. Everyone KNOWS we can blow the world up and everyone knows we have the strongest military in the world so why act like it? Threatening and bullying sure hasn't gotten us much so far. Yes, we have a good President and he is going to move our nation forward. Let's not complain about how he cleans up the MESS left by a LIAR and Criminal by bashing him for telling us what we already knew. Most certainly lets not bash him for releasing the INSANE reasoning used by those criminals to break the laws of this nation and the International Community. Let's hold the Criminals responsible and stop trashing the messenger!

[skyk-2009]

Posted by Iamas_Hamed at 11:12 PM : Apr 19, 2009

George W. Bush is a LIAR and a CRIMINAL. He KNOWINGLY and WILLFULLY LIED to me and EVERY other American, starting a War that did NOT have to be. He lacked the HONOR to step up and ADMIT the obvious fact that his reason for starting that War was WRONG. He LIED to me and EVERY other American about violating our Laws and constitution. He KNOWINGLY and WILLFULLY took this nation back to an ECONOMIC Policy that he and everyone else KNEW had never worked and could not work. He KNOWINGLY and WILLFULLY, put a Judge in our court system who had given a legal opinion that a Nazi Judge would give condoning the act of Torture. Now YOU can be proud of that if you like... that's your option, but PLEASE do not ask me to approve of it!

[skyk-2009]

Liberals - the elitists who look down their noses at the rest of us when, in truth, I'm sure they have dramas in their lives too. However, they wouldn't be talking about a grandchild, or a child of their own when confronted with life's challenges. A lot of them would take steps to get rid of the evidence because it continues to allow them to pretend superiority that doesn't exist.
Posted by joule18 at 6:03 PM : Apr 19, 2009

Can I ask what YOUR opinion of what a Liberal is have to do with this story? Everyone knows WHY you do it and it's simply childish! Their, those American's you choose to hate because they don't agree with you, families aren't relevant here. Why? Because THEY aren't running for office AND they aren't trying to tell the rest of us what OUR values should be. Failin Palin IS and thus we should ALL look very carefully at how her OWN Family matches us to her gestapo attitudes toward the rest of us!

[skyk-2009]

And, I see the wannabe gadfly, who is so condecending about a spelling of the word "asinine", which really could have been another typo in the post, feels compelled to let everyone know his/her political slant.

Be gone you bumptious liberal. Ah, but I'm being redundant.
Posted by speakinup at 5:49 PM : Apr 19, 2009

Well don't just attack your fellow American with that same tired old garbage you people have been putting out for decades now. EXPLAIN why you think his post is wrong. Why we should even give this Woman a second thought, given what has transpired over the last year or so with her and her family. She is one that wants to tell us all what our "family values" should be and I for one am VERY concerned about someone like that who has the dirty laundry in her OWN family that she has. Maybe this Air Head, and man she IS an air head, should stay home and work on her OWN short comings?

[stychokiller]

This whole story is politics pure and simple. If Mr. Johnston's family were wealthy contributors to the Republicon party, the Palins would be falling all over themselves to try to convince Levi to marry their daughter. Just another argument NOT to allow politicians and their offspring to breed.

[ladypirate2]

lamas_Hamad: I ask you, is Obama doing any better? So far he has got us trillions of dollars in debt, so much in debt that our gggggggggrandchildren will be paying our debts hundreds of years from now. He is also releasing the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay who will only return to their countries and rejoin Al Queda and attack us again. Recently he also released sensitive CIA information about their interrogation technics to the public. He is also getting very friendly with Hugo Chavez and other communist leaders. He has even scheduled a meeting with the leader of North Korea. I ask you again, is Obama doing any better? So far I don't think so! He's only been in office three months and he's made a whole list of mistakes and according to you democrats he's supposed to be the smart one!

[ladypirate2]

Salaam_Shalome: Have you ever considered the fact that there might be things about Levi that we don't know? I have a feeling that we haven't been told everything about him. I think the Palins probably have a very good reason for limiting and controlling his visits with his son that we don't know about After all they know him much better than we do!

[Iamas_Hamed]

ladypirate:
"skyk2009: I'm not at all ashamed of George W. Bush or what he stood for! Granted, he might not be the brightest bulb in the pack and he did make mistakes but I think if we were in his shoes and faced with the situations that he was faced with, we, including you, would probably have done the same things that he did or we would have made even worse mistakes!"
So, being among the dumbest US presidents so far in history gets one a pass? Where can I sign up for that job? It's a sad statement he would make the same mistakes any average idiot citizen would make in the situations he faced. Being our Commander - In - Chief, I - we- should demand he be better than us, smarter than us and make MUCH better decisions than we would. However, he did not and we're certainly not better for it. Whatever retarded ideology he may have held could be forgiven, even tolerated by those of us that differ, had he done a better job as leader of this country both in representing us and pointing us in the right direction. No, I am ashamed, ashamed that my country voted in the bumbling menace twice, ashamed for the things he did to us and to the world and ashamed many of us still think it was all a good idea and ashamed at what we as a country have done, have allowed to be done in our name and the direction we as a country are now headed in because of people like George W. Bush. I am sorry.

[sero5]

Any politician who cannot keep their family problems to themselves and away from the media spotlight should not consider running for national office.