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Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009 10:25 PM UTC

Palin goes on the warpath against Johnston

The former governor responds, quite harshly, to allegations from the man once set to be her son-in-law

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Topics: Levi Johnston, Sarah Palin, War Room,

Levi Johnston, the father of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s grandchild, was back on television Wednesday morning. As with all of his most recent appearances, what Johnston had to say didn’t exactly paint the woman who was once going to be his mother-in-law in the most favorable light.

During an interview on CBS’ “Early Show,”Johnston repeated and expanded upon an allegation he’d made earlier, that Palin refers to her son Trig — who has Down Syndrome — as “retarded.” He also said he knows other things about Palin that could hurt her, but that he won’t reveal them.

“I have things that can, you know — that would get her in trouble, and could hurt her. Will hurt her. But I’m not gonna go that far. You know, I mean, if I really wanted to hurt her, I could, very easily. But there’s — I’m not gonna do it. I’m not going that far,” Johnston said.

Palin has issued a statement responding to Johnston. She had some rather harsh things to say about him — she referenced his forthcoming appearance in Playgirl magazine — and also criticized CBS for putting him on the air. The statement:

We have purposefully ignored the mean spirited, malicious and untrue attacks on our family. We, like many, are appalled at the inflammatory statements being made or implied. Trig is our ‘blessed little angel’ who knows it and is lovingly called that every day of his life. Even the thought that anyone would refer to Trig by any disparaging name is sickening and sad. CBS should be ashamed for continually providing a forum to propagate lies. Consider the source of the most recent attention-getting lies – those who would sell their body for money reflect a desperate need for attention and are likely to say and do anything for even more attention.

(Hat-tip to The Note.)

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

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