First Lady Jill Biden is seen by President Biden’s aides as one of the most powerful first ladies in modern history, according to “Original Sin,” the new book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson.
That influence extended to her top aide, Anthony Bernal, who, according to the authors, became one of the most powerful figures inside the White House. Tapper and Thompson describe Bernal’s elevated role as part of a broader narrative about President Biden’s cognitive decline and the administration’s alleged efforts to conceal it.
But that influence came at a price, according to the authors. “He would not be welcome at my funeral,” a longtime Biden aide told the writers.
In a White House where loyalty was the currency of power, Anthony Bernal used it as a weapon to root out dissenters, according to Tapper and Thompson.
“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 their book.
During the pandemic, then-candidate Biden opted to remain largely hidden rather than hitting the campaign trail. During that time, two Biden aides — Bernal and Annie Tomasini — managed to burrow into the future first couple’s orbit, which shifted the power paradigm of Joe Biden’s so-called “Politburo,” which the authors described as a group of insiders who likely ran much of his presidency.
