President Joe Biden’s aides consider first lady Jill Biden one of the most powerful first ladies in history, according to the new book, “Original Sin,” by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson.
By proxy, the first lady’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, became one of the most influential people in the White House, Tapper and Thompson said in their new book about Biden’s cognitive decline and the administration’s alleged cover-up.
“He would not be welcome at my funeral,” a longtime Biden aide told the authors.
Operating in a White House anchored in loyalty, Bernal wielded loyalty as a weapon to weed out the defectors, Tapper and Thompson said.
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“He considered loyalty to be the defining virtue and would wield that word to elevate some and oust others – at times fairly and at times not. ‘Are you a Biden person?’ he would ask West Wing aides. ‘Is so-and-so a Biden person?’ The regular interrogations led some colleagues to dub him the leader of the ‘loyalty police,’” the journalists wrote in “Original Sin.”
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During the pandemic, Biden traded the campaign trail for lockdown. Two aides, Bernal and Annie Tomasini, found their way into Joe and Jill Biden’s pod, shifting the power dynamic of Biden’s so-called “Politiburo,” the group of advisors who steered Biden’s political orbit.
Tapper and Thompson describe the “intensely loyal” duo as taking on an “older-brother-and-little-sister vibe.” Thompson even had the title of deputy campaign manager, which Tapper and Thompson said was “unusual for a staffer to a spouse.” The duo were the masterminds behind loading a teleprompter for Biden ahead of a local interview, a misstep that followed Biden’s campaign.
“The significance of Bernal and Tomasini is the degree to which their rise in the Biden White House signaled the success of people whose allegiance was to the Biden family – not to the presidency, not to the American people, not to the country, but to the Biden theology,” the authors wrote.
Tapper and Thompson said it was difficult to find many Bernal defenders and described him as using his power to cast out “potential heretics.”
As Bernal earned a reputation for trash-talking fellow aides, “some even described him as the worst person they had ever met,” Tapper and Thompson said.
Bernal and Tomasini took on some of the residence staffers’ roles in the White House. Tapper and Thompson said the aides “had all-time access to the living quarters, with their White House badges reading ‘Res’ – uncommon for such aides.”
When the Biden campaign began gearing up for a re-election campaign and some voiced fears about his age or battleground state polling, Bernal and other senior staffers reacted dismissively about Vice President Kamala Harris launching a bid. Bernal is quoted in the book as having said, “You don’t run for four years – you run for eight.”
“He had already begun planning the first lady’s 2025 international travel schedule,” Tapper and Thompson said. Bernal worked overtime to elevate Jill Biden’s “profile and glamour,” freely criticizing her looks and outfits and even calling her “Jill,” according to the authors.
Jill Biden and Bernal worked in tandem, keeping score of “who was with them and against them.” The book described the first lady as “one of the chief supporters of the president’s decision to run for reelection, and one of the chief deniers of his deterioration.”
Bernal’s loyalty to the Bidens never faltered, and even after the disastrous debate performance in July 2024, Jill Biden and Bernal were determined to keep pushing on through November, Tapper and Thompson said.
Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden’s cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up.
A former White House staffer fired back against Tapper and Thompson’s allegations about Bernal in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“A lot of vignettes in this book are either false, exaggerated, or purposefully omit viewpoints that don’t fit the narrative they want to push. Anthony was a strong leader with high standards and a mentor to many. He’s the type of person you want on a team – he’s incredibly strategic, effective, and cares deeply about the people he manages,” the former White House staffer said.
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