Bristol Palin is by no means the only possibility for Trig Palin's birth mother. However, the persistence of the rumors that she was pregnant dating to before Trig's birth, coupled with the complete lack of photographs of her from the time period, makes it difficult not to continue to consider her the most likely "other mother."
Since September, numerous people have been looking to social networking websites, like MySpace for additional info about "Life and Times at Wasilla High." As we've stated previously, MySpace has NOT provided us concrete proof about this issue, specifically who Trig's mother is OR whether Bristol Palin was pregnant. But the MySpace comments do give a glimpse into the lives of Bristol, Levi and their circle of friends. And what we can see does indicate that something "changed" as early as July 2007 and that something was amiss during the winter of 2007-2008.
A number of the comments already published here have been suspicious, but none have been conclusive. For example, we’ve seen that Bristol made a series of interesting comments to her friend Johnny in the spring of 2007, including one stating that Gov. Palin had confronted her about possibly being pregnant. Other comments made to her girlfriends also merit attention:
June 22, 2007 9:40 PM
Hey, call me NOW!!
June 25, 2007 1:33 AM
:( now im a mother duck for that baby!
(Note from Audrey: This curious comment is discussed in more detail at the very end of this post.)
June 25, 2007 1:50 AM
ha ha im a slut. but sounds good…what number?
Without context, however, these comments can be interpreted in numerous ways. And, during this same period, other examples show Bristol to be happy and social, engaging in typical summertime activities. This makes it all the more strange when, in late June 2007, she suddenly disappears from MySpace, and is mentioned by name only once after that, even by her good friends.
Please be clear that we have no evidence that as of late June 2007, she actually did stop using MySpace abruptly. It's possible that she could have. Perhaps she became bored with MySpace. Perhaps her computer broke. Perhaps her friends just stopped talking both ABOUT her and TO her as of that date. But it's also quite possible (even probable) that she continued to use MySpace for months after this… and then at some point between late June 2007 and late August 2008, for reasons that we do not know at a point in time we cannot pinpoint, a decision was made to remove Bristol's page from the site, as well as delete any and all comments she made to friends, and apparently either to delete (or asked to be deleted) comments others made about her between themselves.
Because of this, our conclusions are drawn as much from what's NOT there as from what is.
What does our research show post-June 2007? One of the only comments that directly references Bristol after that time (and the only one that uses her name) has already been published, from September 2007, in which one girl (Kaila) is joking with Jenny Jo, who is a good friend of Levi’s off-and-on girlfriend Lanesia, because Jenny Jo had threatened to beat Bristol up for Lanesia.
9/28/2007 Kaila to Jenny Jo:
haha, you were gonna fight Bristol for Lanesia.. idk, it was freakin hilarious though. you were getttin ready to take on like 394083 people yourself. haha..funny ass shit. call me tonight bia.
Is this because Levi and Bristol’s relationship has just been discovered? The problem with this comment is that it references something that happened earlier, "you were gonna fight…" but there is no date context. Was this something that happened the previous night or three months earlier? We don't know.
In any case, by January 2008, Lanesia had moved on to a different relationship, indicating that Bristol and Levi most likely became “official” sometime in either the summer or the fall of 2007.
Although she had a new boyfriend, one specific comment shows that Lanesia might still have harbored some residual feelings for Levi. In late January 2008, there is a burst of chatter that may be significant, though it's inconclusive at the same time. First, messages are left between a young man named Tylor to our old friend Jenny Jo.
In the first, Tylor asks Jenny Jo: "Who do you want to beat up?" (indicating that Jenny Jo has told Tylor that she's angry with someone) and the second – in response to something Jenny Jo then said back to Tylor that we cannot see – "THEY F***ED?"
Is Tylor a newcomer to some gossip? Does the gossip even have anything at all to do with Bristol Palin? The next couple of exchanges certainly indicate the strong possibility that Levi and Bristol are involved. Tylor immediately posts to Rachelle (the sister of Johnny – who has been identified as Bristol's boyfriend prior to Levi) "ARE YOU SERIOUS"
Again, why do we think this has anything to do with Bristol? Because just a couple hours later, Lanesia then posts back to Rachelle:
yea i heard and #### no never again she messed that up to many times and i aint one to talk shit about a girl and go be tight with them but no im not she totally messed up by Fn my Xbf
These exchanges indicate that something surprising was revealed in late January 2008. Lanesia's "yea I heard" can only mean there is new information which involved a girl who was "fn" Lanesia's "xbf," and from our research, the only ex-boyfriend of Lanesia was Levi Johnston. And, although Levi had been linked with several other girls in 2005 and 2006, from 2007 on, the only two girls mentioned in conjunction with Levi were Lanesia herself and Bristol Palin. It would be easy to say that "new shocking" info would be that Bristol was pregnant. Yet – two of the comments specifically mention just sexual activity – as if that might be the "new" thing, which then becomes hard to explain in the context of someone wanting to beat Bristol up FOR Lanesia at least four months earlier.
And then… in this sequence… nothing more.
We can only come back to what was said before: For a popular girl who had an active social life and many friends, and who had been a regular MySpace user, the complete absence of any mention of Bristol through this time period is astonishing. It's important to reiterate that the only comments we can link to her (with the one exception of the comment from September 2007, which makes reference to her being "beat up") do not contain her name.
For example, in April 2008, 8 days before Trig’s official birthdate, an older Wasilla teen named Dannie, someone not closely connected to the primary social group, makes this curious comment on a friend’s MySpace:
April 10, 2008 12:03 AM
…i want to tell you something kinda funny so when you call remind me about the governor’s kid…
Something to do with Bristol?
After that comment, there is nothing more to be found in MySpace about any of the Palins until the end of August. The pregnancy that was announced by the Palin campaign on September 1, 2008 was said to be an “open secret” in Wasilla. Really? Because in spite of the fact that many of the teens’ MySpace profiles were used extensively between April-August 2008, neither Mercede nor any other person makes even one mention of Bristol or the pregnancy. Not one.
Mercede's MySpace page was public until midafternoon on September 1, 2008. We have screen shots of the entire thing. She is so close to her older brother Levi that she had posted several pictures of them together, in which she calls him "her best friend" in the world. She has had his name tattooed on her wrist. Yet not one post about this exciting "open secret" that her dear brother was to become a father, which would make her a new auntie? No.
Numerous comments exist on many girls' pages in which pregnancies, showers, and babies are discussed, in some cases with great excitement and positive feelings. But regarding Bristol, Levi and the Tripp pregnancy... well, it doesn't seem to exist. The only thing we do have is a photograph of Bristol and Mercede together from April 25, 2008 in which Mercede refers to Bristol as her sister-in-law. This is after Trig's birth but before it is plausible that it was known that she was pregnant with Tripp.
Then, the morning of August 29, 2008 arrives, and with it, John McCain’s announcement of his running mate.
On that day, there is an occasional comment along the lines of --hey, did you see who got picked?--but generally nothing more than that. But on the afternoon of the 29th, Dannie (the one who had heard something "kinda funny" about the governor’s kid) does have a specific question, and she poses it to another Wasilla teen, Zach, again someone not tightly connected to the primary group. Because Zach's MySpace profile is private, we cannot see the initial question to him, but his answer is this:
August 29, 2008 3:39 PM
I know who started it. Tylor [last name deleted by PD]
I think that’s how you spell his name
There is no context surrounding this remark to aid interpretation. All we know is that Zach says that Tylor started “it”. Because Zach identifies Tylor by his first and last name, we know for sure that this is the same Tylor who was involved in the exchanges regarding the surprising news back in January.
Fast forward a bit to September 3, the day of Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention. Not only is the Palin/Johnston pregnancy an “open secret” in Wasilla, it’s now the most famous pregnancy in the entire United States. The governor of Alaska is on the ticket; her oldest daughter has been outed as a pregnant unwed teen on the national news; said daughter and her hockey star fiance are being seen all over the world. That should warrant quite a few MySpace comments. No need to keep it on the down-low anymore. Right? Or at least a couple of comments? Actually: zero.
Well, maybe just one, a cryptic question--asked by a girl named Kelci of Kaila (the same Kaila who was involved in the exchange with Jenny Jo about beating up Bristol a year earlier):
September 3, 2008 6:06 PM
bp?
Kaila's answer is not known because Kelci's profile is private, but, after receiving a response, she comments back to Kaila
September 4, 2008 6:02 PM
mmmmm gotcha. that’s what I figured but I wasn’t fasho
whadddup?
For the uninitiated, "fasho" in teen speak means "for sure." So Kelci is saying, "That's what I thought [about whatever it is they were talking about concerning "bp"] but I wasn't sure."
But what could it be? If we're to believe that Bristol’s pregnancy is an "open secret" in Wasilla, and that Levi and Bristol are an established, even engaged, couple, why is it that the only possible mention of it at this point (OR throughout the entire previous summer OR during the entire following campaign) is this one girl who dares use only initials? Hmmm.
And what could this girl be asking? We believe she is a relative of Kaila (though we can't confirm that 100%); she also lives in the Wasilla area, and she is friends with many of the same people as Kaila. So she wouldn’t be confirming simply that Bristol is pregnant, because everyone already knows that, right?
So what are my conclusions?
1. Bristol Palin was "scrubbed" from MySpace as of an arbitrary date. This date seems to be around July 1, 2007, though the date the scrubbing was actually done is completely unknown. Numerous comments from before this date existed as of September 1, 2008 (though many have since been removed) including one fairly troublesome one about her mother questioning whether or not she was pregnant. Only one comment exists which mentions her by name after that date, and NO comments from her.
2. There was chatter about something surprising, even shocking, in late January 2008 that involved Levi Johnston, and in all probability, Bristol Palin. This was far too early for her to have been pregnant with Tripp. However, considering earlier comments, it seems too late to have been simply that the two young people were in a relationship.
3. There is not a single mention of Bristol, Levi, or Bristol's pregnancy throughout the entire summer of 2008, even though it was supposed to have been an "open secret" in Wasilla. A single comment, mentioning Bristol only by using her initials, strongly suggests on September 3rd that there is something more going on than just the supposed "open secret. " It was something that there was gossip about, something that some young people in Wasilla (who should have been connected with the group) were unaware of. Something about Tripp's pregnancy was not "as presented" on September 1, 2008, though what exactly that is is completely unclear. Dates? Who the father might be?
The MySpace information is confusing, at time contradictory, and terribly incomplete. Yet, overall, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the timelines of neither the Trig nor the Tripp pregnancies seem plausible based on what is being said (and not said) among teenagers in Wasilla.
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PS. Those who have read this far (!) will probably note that no comment has been made about a curious post from late June, 2007, in which Bristol states:
:( now im a mother duck for that baby!
(For those who don't know, the ":( " is a "frowny face" indicating unhappiness.)
This comment has caused quite a bit of private debate and discussion among those affiliated with this blog. Certainly, it is hard to say it is not significant: it is the second to last thing still available from Bristol on MySpace (only her "now I'm a slut" comment came later, by a couple of minutes) AND – good grief! - it mentions a baby!
But what does it mean? It has been suggested that she is being forced to gestate a child, like a mother duck sitting on eggs. Several of the Palin Deception researchers subscribe to this theory, and find it extremely significant.
It has also been suggested that, in spite of the timing, it has nothing to do with Bristol being pregnant or not pregnant. I for one find the use of the phrase "that baby" to indicate that she is talking about something separate from her, possibly a child (Piper, who was five at the time?) she was being forced to babysit for. (And ducklings follow mother ducks around constantly.)
If Bristol Palin had said, ":( now im a mother duck for THIS baby!" I would be saying that I found it highly indicative of pregnancy. But the use of the word "that" to me means she is talking about something she is not happy about, something she has actual disdain for. Most teenaged women who become pregnant and decide to keep the baby tend to be excited about it (naively perhaps, but still excited.) The negative tone of this comment indicates to me that she is talking about something else. I do not know what.
But I am presenting both sets of thoughts here, and the reader needs to decide for himself on this one.
