Levi Johnston On CBS' Early Show: I'm Going To Leak Things On Palin, That's Just How It Is (VIDEO)

Levi Johnston appeared on CBS' Early Show Wednesday, where he explained his reasons for spilling unflattering information about the Palin family and said he was keeping some "huge" secrets.

Among other things, Johnston said Palin joked about her son Trig's Down Syndrome, calling him her "retarded baby."

"I was just in shock the first time I heard it," he said, when host Maggie Rodriguez expressed disbelief. He also said Bristol took care of the baby much more than her mother: "Sarah was never home."

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Johnston also said that Todd and Sarah would fight in front of their kids.

He said he was going public because the Palins betrayed him and backstabbed him: "I really don't care anymore ... Now it's my turn ... I told a little bit of stuff, and you know, I'm just not going to take it anymore."

"If she's going to go out there and say things to me, about me, I'm going to leak some things on her. I mean that's just how it is," he said. He added, however, that there are some things he won't say that would really hurt Palin. "I'm not gonna go that far," he said.

In recent weeks Johnston has seized the media spotlight, after the announcement that the 19-year-old plans to pose nude in an upcoming issue of Playgirl magazine.

The Washington Post offers more of the CBS interview:

When asked whether he resents Palin, Johnston says, "Well now I've heard all the things she's said. You know, the Sarah Palin I knew before, it was -- it was her putting on a front, it was her being fake to me and now that everything's slowly coming out and I'm hearing more things, you know, and things she's said and done, you know, I see the real Palin," Levi responds, before stepping through the looking glass.

Part two of Rodriguez's interview airs on Thursday morning.

UPDATE: Palin has issued a statement responding to Levi's remarks. "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." Palin also went after CBS and Levi's intentions to strip for Playgirl: "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."

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Comments

[Sanity01]

05:44 PM on 02/08/2010

All I know is "if Levy said it, it's gotta be true". He just looks too honest to lie. And he certainly has nothing to gain by lying, does he? He comes from too good of stock to lie, anyway. He's a hard worker who is gonna go back and finish high school as soon as all this pesky publicity dies down.

[marshhen]

04:39 PM on 02/08/2010

HP is turning into the National Enquirer..­.just another gossip rag.

[mapmaker515]

03:27 PM on 02/08/2010

I Sarah Palin rebuke Levi Johnston and call for him to step down as my unwed teenage daughter's baby daddy. (sorry that's all i could cram on my hands and feet. More to come after I shower.)

[purplejesus]

02:17 PM on 02/08/2010

it's OK when sarah and rush say it.

[Mafdet]

01:34 PM on 02/08/2010

I kind of hope that Levi is able somehow to capitalize off of this mess. And I hope Bristol can too. Enough to move away from it and rise above it and eventually have their own lives.

But the problem is that there is nothing that Levi or even Bristol could report that would shock either those of us who understand Sarah Palin to be a contemptib­le opportunis­t or those who thinkshe's the second coming.

They have no currency. There is nothing that can be said about a saint or a devil that hasn't already been said.

[doris 124]

12:47 PM on 02/08/2010

I am waiting for Levi to spill it spill it....by the way...will the real mother of
Trig please STAND.

[patsydecline]

12:40 PM on 02/08/2010

maybe on her other hand she has notes on how to be a good mother...

[T Pol]

12:23 PM on 02/08/2010

After reading Levi's macho man profile on his MySpace or Facebook (whatever) page way back when, I doubt he was "shocked" by Palin referring to Trig as her "retarded baby." He may have realized what a gawdawful situation he'd be in "married to the family" to the family and chose to milk the celebrity cow while he could to ensure his future. Or maybe the Palins threw him to the wolves and then he chose that route.

Whatever. While neither gets my trust as they fling walrus apples at each other, the greater fault lies with Palin in my view. Levi is barely of age for adulthood. Palin is supposed to be a mother figure here and sounds more like a high schooler than Levi does.

She should have kept her self-right­eous, hypocritic­al mouth shut when he decided to do Playgirl, for starters.

Electing her to anything would ensure that democracy would be held hostage to the Pay Attention to Meeee Soap Opera of Sarah Palin's Life.

Again, thanks, but no thanks.

[mage]

12:22 PM on 02/08/2010

How about her selling her speeches for 100,000, Is this saying and doing anything for money. I feel sad for her kids being used by this hateful woman(call­ing your own kid names). I pray for her son.

[ywcachieve]

12:27 PM on 02/08/2010

I feel sorry for her children, too. Having a hateful, lying, conniving, scam artist for a mother.

[ywcachieve]

12:09 PM on 02/08/2010

'''He said he was going public because the Palins betrayed him and backstabbe­d him: "I really don't care anymore ... Now it's my turn ... I told a little bit of stuff, and you know, I'm just not going to take it anymore."

"If she's going to go out there and say things to me, about me, I'm going to leak some things on her. I mean that's just how it is," he said. He added, however, that there are some things he won't say that would really hurt Palin. "I'm not gonna go that far," he said. '''

Come on Levi. spill it, spill it!

[boscobear]

10:53 AM on 02/08/2010

With her comments about people selling their body, wonder what Palin thinks about the New Mass. Senator and Playgirl centerfold­.

[ywcachieve]

11:57 AM on 02/08/2010

She, being the hypocrite she is, thinks its OK, because he is a Repub.

[plzchuteme]

09:29 AM on 02/08/2010

It's not a matter of Sarah Palin is a fool, OR Levi Johnston is a fool, depending on which side of the fence you reside. It is entirely possible that Sarah Palin is a fool AND Levi Johnston is a fool. Maybe, we are the fools. Those who subscribe to Ms. Palin's rhetoric certainly are, but what about those who fly Levi around the country and put him up in fine hotels and pay him to dribble out unsubstant­iated bits of dirt and teasing that he has big clods of dirt in his backpack that he will reveal at some point...if we fly him down to New York, wine and dine him, and pay for his revelation­s while enhancing his "career." Levi, call me when you have something substantia­l, factual, verifiable­, unbiased by a revenge motive for the wrongs you feel you have suffered.

[HekmagaJuximakLives]

06:16 PM on 02/08/2010

Perhaps they were fools together, hence Trig.

[uhavenoface]

06:41 AM on 02/08/2010

"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."

ignoring something and being apalled by it are mutually exclusive choices genius. pick a side, we're at war

[ywcachieve]

11:48 AM on 02/08/2010

Is she talking about what SHE does to people. Her mean-spiri­ted attacks on President Obama and first lady. And her mean-spiri­ted attacks on Levi and his mother.

That is one disturbed nasty woman.

[wilray]

03:28 AM on 02/08/2010

Levi confirms what I suspected. He was used as a prop during Sarah Palin's campaign. He was trotted out during the campaign so that Bristol would not be seen as the total unwed mother. Once the campaign was over they tossed him aside like yesterday'­s newspaper. If what Levi says is not true, he could be sued for slander or libel. I don't expect that to happen because the defense against slander or libel is truth. Expect the Palins to keep badgering Levi but never to take it to court.

[ywcachieve]

11:50 AM on 02/08/2010

''''Levi confirms what I suspected. He was used as a prop during Sarah Palin's campaign. He was trotted out during the campaign so that Bristol would not be seen as the total unwed mother. Once the campaign was over they tossed him aside like yesterday'­s newspaper.­''''''

So true.

[thinkworklivelove]

12:27 AM on 02/08/2010

Is Limbaugh the Mafia boss of the Repub party? She had to go on teevee to 'kiss the ring' to defend his use of the word. Because the Mafia boss can say what he wants.