Insiders are leaking that a top White House official has engaged in unprofessional conduct but that his position as first lady Jill Biden’s top aide has made him “untouchable,” according to a new report.
According to the New York Post, “sources with firsthand knowledge” say Biden’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, the openly gay man who is famously being tagged as the first lady’s “work husband,” has engaged in bullying of employees and verbally and sexually harassed colleagues for more than a decade.
Despite this, the report states, not a thing has been done about it all.
One claim, for instance maintains that Bernal has repeatedly talked about comparing the penis sizes of those in his office, according to the report published Tuesday.
The paper reported that two sources had said that Bernal, 50, has repeatedly joked that the size of a man’s penis is indicated by the size of the man’s thumb.
Bernal has also allegedly made fun the genital sizes of other office personnel and even Secret Service agents.
“It is to make people uncomfortable and to have power over them,” the Post quoted one source as saying.
“It is Me Too — classic Me Too,” the source said, referring to the anti-harassment movement that sprang up several years ago.
Yet another source told the Post that Bernal often uses accusations of small penis size to “jab” someone, and in another case commented on a staffer’s “bulge in his khakis.”
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This behavior has also been going on for years, the paper added, well before Joe Biden became president.
“It was a lot of inappropriate remarks,” the Post wrote quoted a source as saying “Talking about other people’s attractiveness and speculating about their sex lives at very weird moments … That’s actually sexual harassment.”
The paper found many other insiders who agreed with the claims that Bernal often makes inappropriate sexual comments.
“I have heard him say inappropriate things about people’s sexuality or pry inappropriately into people’s personal lives,” one staffer said, according to the Post report. “I heard him ask if people are gay all the time.”
Another stated, according to the Post, that, “I could think of more than one instance where he pontificated on whether someone was gay or not or said, ‘They are definitely gay.’”
The paper said it found “almost a dozen” current or former staffers who agreed that Bernal regularly engages in unprofessional behavior in the workplace.
Many felt it was “hypocritical” of Biden to keep Bernal in such an important position, considering how the Democrats place such a premium on combating harassment. Especially since Joe Biden took office claiming that he would fire anyone “on the spot” if he discovered that any staffer “disrespected” a colleague.
“They talk a big game about integrity, decency, and kindness but when you work for the Bidens, you experience anything but that,” a source told the Post.
“They choose to surround themselves with bullies who run around the White House like mean girls, making the president and first lady look like phonies to everyone in Washington because everyone on the inside talks about what happens there on the outside.”
Another source echoed that, according to the Post.
“It reflects poorly on the president and the first lady,” the source said.
The Post’s story is not the first time Bernal’s behavior has been in the public eye. It was also mentioned in a story at Politico back in 2021. But it does not appear that anything has ever been done about it.
The insiders also said that they doubt anything will ever be done about it because Bernal has the ear of the first lady.
Indeed, as Politico pointed out, in her 2019 memoir, Jill Biden gave Bernal an entire paragraph thanking him for all he has done for her.
“A special thank-you to ANTHONY BERNAL, who spent countless hours, holidays, and weekends to push me to write,” she wrote. “He knows how much I love him and respect him.”
That kind of sentiment is the problem, a source told the Post.
“I don’t think people understand how much power and influence he has. The problem is, it is career-ending for anyone to talk on the record for these stories,” the source said, according to the newspaper.
In a statement to the Post on Monday, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said:
“The president and first lady have full confidence in Anthony’s character, as do I. His many fans at the White House know him to be both gracious and tough, holding himself up to the highest standards, with a heart dedicated to public service. It is disappointing that he is the target of unfounded attacks from unnamed sources.”
For his part, according to the Post, Bernal issued a separate statement saying: “These unfounded attacks are not true.”
Bernal has been in the Biden orbit since 2008 when Joe was elected vice president under Barack Obama. And before that, Bernal worked on Al Gore’s vice presidential staff.
Ultimately, Bernal’s reputation as a serial abuser of staffers and the culture of fear he has instilled in the White House has made it hard to get new people to work for Jill Biden’s office, according to the Post.
“They couldn’t care less how staff is treated because staff is totally disposable to them. They’ve had a revolving door of staff catering to them for their entire adult lives,” an insider told the Post.
A quote from a former White House official published by the Post could summarize the whole saga:
“He’s seen as untouchable due to his relationship with the first lady,” the former official said. “Staff have been told he’s ‘protected’ by Jill or that they should take it up with him directly.”
