There are so many discrepancies in the pregnancy and birth stories of both Trig Palin and Tripp Johnston that it is sometimes hard to keep up with them all. You'd need a whole section in your Day Planner just to keep track of most of them. And lots of note cards and spread sheets and.... oh yes, that IS my desk.
Anyway...
When you least expect it, a new clue (or clues) seems to emerge that helps to clear the fog away from earlier statements. Happily, the recent publication of an unauthorized biography of Sarah Palin, Trailblazer by Lorenzo Benet, along with Greta Van Susteren’s interview of Sarah…er… Bristol Palin, offered us some new information that allows us to put a few more pieces of the birth-hoax puzzle together. (Who would have thought that the pro-Palin biography OR Greta’s interview would HELP us make our case? Is this poetic justice, or perhaps divine intervention, or what?)
Based on an (undocumented) birth date of December 27th, Tripp was conceived no earlier than April 2008, and arguably later as he was not presented to the world until mid-February (exactly as I predicted). So even Bristol could not have been aware of the pregnancy until late-April 2008, at the earliest.
Yet we know that rumors of the pregnancy preceded this time frame, so much so that Sarah herself tried to dispel the rumors prior to March 2008. The Anchorage Daily New wrote a story about the rumors on August 31, 2008 and as we now know, they pursued the story about the rumors again in the fall. We also know that, almost a year ago, a poster on reddit.com reported on the Bristol pregnancy rumor and said she was going to high school in Anchorage. Wasilla caterer Sue Williams stated on the record that Willow Palin's boyfriend was telling people in Wasilla before Trig was born that Bristol was pregnant.
In fact, there is so much to discuss regarding rumors of the pregnancy that I have decided to go into more detail on this subject in an upcoming post – today I am just going to focus on the question of when Bristol moved to Anchorage.
Why? Because this is important. Because it shows that in spite of months of time to get it right, this whole dumb bunch STILL just can't get their stories straight. First Dude has had his slip ups, including telling Greta Van Susteren that three of their children had traveled to the VP nomination announcement. Ooops. What about little number 4, Triggy Bear? Sarah - Lord knows - has changed her stories on Trig's pregnancy so many times we can't even list all of the blunders and even direct contradictions. And now... both Sarah Palin's sister, Heather Bruce, and Bristol Palin seems to have joined the ooops club.
First, let’s reintroduce Heather Bruce, Sarah’s sister, who lives in Anchorage near the West High School, where her daughter Lauden is a student. There seems to be no dispute that Bristol Palin lived with Heather Bruce during her pregnancy AND there seems to be no dispute that Bristol Palin lived with Heather Bruce in January and February of 2008, but somehow those two facts don't seem to collide into a simple conclusion in most people's minds: that a high likelihood exists that Bristol Palin WAS pregnant in January and February of 2008.
There is a plausible reason for this: That she had lived with Heather Bruce while pregnant was reported at the same time that Bristol’s pregnancy with Tripp was publicized, and many people assumed that the Tripp pregnancy was the pregnancy in question.
But now, adding to the earlier statements (which, it appears, some in the Palin camp may have forgotten were still floating around out there ), we have some new statements from both Heather Bruce and Bristol Palin that help clarify that this extended stay with Aunt Heather could not have been during Bristol’s pregnancy with Tripp. It was much earlier. Really big oops.
Let’s start by looking at some of the published reports on Bristol’s time living with Heather Bruce.
There is a report by Inside Edition, which says: “Halfway through the school year, about the time Bristol discovered she was pregnant, she transferred to another high school.” This report was aired on 9/2/2008, meaning it had to refer to a prior school year. This states explicitly and openly that Bristol found out she was pregnant "halfway through the school year." Unless Bristol Palin had the longest pregnancy on record, halfway through that school year, Tripp had not yet been conceived, but of course "someone" had to be pregnant with Trig. Half way through the school year would have been around December when "someone" would have been around twenty weeks. A very plausible and logical time for a first time mother to find out (or at least reveal to her family) that she is expecting. Why this statement has not received more scruitiny has always mystified me.
Another report, this one by the Washington Post, states that Bristol went mid-school-year to live with her aunt in Anchorage, finishing at the city's West High School.
The assistant principal of the Wasilla High School also confirmed that Bristol transferred from there halfway through the 2007-2008 school year: “Mark Okeson, the assistant principal at Wasilla High School told the Chicago Tribune that Bristol started her junior year last fall, in the town where Sarah Palin grew up. He said Bristol inexplicably transferred to an Anchorage high school midyear, leaving Levi behind. ‘I never heard the story why,’ he said.”
Not to be outdone, the National Enquirer reported this as well, with some additional details: “When Sarah found out the teen was pregnant by high schooler Levi Johnston, she was actually banished from the house. As part of the cover-up, Palin quickly transferred Bristol to another high school and made her move in with Sarah’s sister Heather 25 miles away!”
(Note here as well the interesting use of the phrase "cover-up." Nowhere has it ever been suggested that any attempt was made to cover up Tripp's pregnancy.)
This has been confirmed to me by several people in Wasilla - that there were definitely rumors in the area by December 2007 that Bristol Palin was pregnant. (Whether the rumors were TRUE is an open question, but that the rumors EXISTED is, in my opinion, NOT open to question or debate.)
These statements have been left to languish by the MSM for months, despite the obvious implication that Bristol Palin was pregnant by late 2007. I think that everyone can agree on one thing: this could NOT have been any pregnancy that ended on December 27, 2008 with the birth of Tripp Johnston. There are only two possibilities. The rumors were all false, or Bristol was pregnant in late 2007 with another child.
Now, in the recently published biography as reported in People Magazine, we have new info from Heather Bruce confirming that Bristol lived with her while pregnant and while going to Anchorage West HS. "While Bristol was pregnant last year, she was living in Anchorage with her aunt and uncle, Heather and Kurt Bruce, and working at two espresso shops – while also attending West High School. Levi was 40 miles away in Wasilla, but, ‘there was certainly no ban on them dating,’ reports Trailblazer. ‘Levi used to drive to Anchorage to take Bristol out.’”
We also have a confirmation from "Misty" in Anchorage that Bristol attended West High School in January and February, leaving sometime around mid to late February.
But let's do a little granny finger counting here. IF the birth date of Tripp Johnston is as reported (December 27th) and he was full term (reasonable considering his birth date) he would have been conceived around April 1st. A quick perusal of the Anchorage West High School's calendar from the 2007-2008 school year shows us that the last day of school was May 23rd. The earliest Bristol could even have suspected she was pregnant was mid to late April. So when would she have lived with Auntie Heather (while pregnant) and gone to school and worked? A week or so in May 2008? Who transfers someone to a new high school with, oh, three weeks left in the school year and then gets two jobs? Come on...
Adding support to our skepticism, we now also know from the Greta Van Susteren interview that Bristol claims to not have told Sarah and Todd Palin of her pregnancy with Tripp until the summer of 2008, after school was out. It's never been suggested anywhere that last fall during the campaign when she would have been pregnant with Tripp was she living in Anchorage, working and/ or attending school.
All of this makes it crystal clear that Bristol’s banishment to Anchorage could not have been for the Tripp pregnancy. As our perceptive bloggers have already pointed out, this also could explain why there are two vastly different accounts of how Bristol told Sarah she was pregnant, one of her sitting her parents down on a couch, the other of her chasing her mother around with a positive pregnancy stick.
So.. what's the truth here? As I have been forced to admit so often on this blog, I don't know. I do know that it is not biologically possible for a woman to have a baby on April 18th and have another (full term) on December 27th. That I can state with confidence.
This, then, leaves us only two possibilities.
A. If the same woman gave birth to both babies, the birth dates we have been given for the two children cannot be correct.
B. If the birth dates are correct, Trig and Tripp cannot have the same mother.
I vote A.
