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2024-03-13 Home Front: Politix
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Deep Dive on Jill Bidens
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[NYPost] A top Biden White House official has bullied and verbally sexually harassed colleagues over more than a decade, The Post has learned — but is considered “untouchable” because first lady Jill Biden regards him as her “work husband.”
Anthony Bernal, whose status as the first lady’s top aide grants him enormous clout in both White House operations and Democratic politics, has repeatedly speculated in the workplace about the penis size of colleagues, according to three sources with firsthand knowledge.
Two sources said Bernal, 50, shared with them a theory that the size of a person’s thumb corresponds to that of their genitalia — citing the hypothesis both at the White House and in prior roles during President Biden’s campaign and vice presidency under President Barack Obama.
“It is to make people uncomfortable and to have power over them,” said one source who told The Post they heard Bernal make the crude remarks over several years while they worked together.
“It is Me Too — classic Me Too,” the source added.
A second source recounted hearing Bernal speculate “often” inside the White House about the endowments of fellow political aides and even Secret Service agents.
A third source recalled a disparaging “jab” during a workplace disagreement in which Bernal said a colleague had a small penis, as well as a separate encounter in which the top aide “remarked on another staffer’s bulge in his khakis.”
The third former colleague said both of those incidents occurred before Biden’s presidency.
“It was a lot of inappropriate remarks — talking about other people’s attractiveness and speculating about their sex lives at very weird moments,” the person said, adding that he had come to see “that’s actually sexual harassment.”
Four sources, meanwhile, said Bernal has speculated aloud in the workplace on the sexuality of colleagues — including at the White House — in a way that makes others uncomfortable.
“I have heard him say inappropriate things about people’s sexuality or pry inappropriately into people’s personal lives,” one former co-worker recalled of Bernal, who is openly gay.
“I heard him ask if people are gay all the time.”
Another source who has worked with Bernal said, “I could think of more than one instance where he pontificated on whether someone was gay or not or said, ‘They are definitely gay.’”
Bernal’s aggressive treatment of colleagues has previously been reported — including an August 2021 story by Politico that noted his “mean streak” — but prior reports did not include allegations of sexual harassment.
“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,” said one of the sources, who described Bernal as creating a “hostile work environment” for employees of both the first lady’s East Wing and those he encountered in the West Wing.
“The dignity speech doesn’t apply to him and everyone knows that. This is not new behavior, and that’s what’s so upsetting, because no one does anything.”
“He’s seen as untouchable due to his relationship with the first lady,” one former White House official said. “Staff have been told he’s ‘protected’ by Jill or that they should take it up with him directly.”
BIDENS ‘COULDN’T CARE LESS HOW STAFF IS TREATED’
Within the White House, Bernal is regarded as rivaling even Zients in terms of power due to his access to the first lady and his ability to intimate that he’s speaking for the Biden family.
“He has an unmatched ability to influence things in the West Wing and the president’s team that no other East Wing [staffer] would have,” one former co-worker said. “He has this because nobody wants to piss off Dr. Biden, because at the end of the day, Dr. Biden is the first person and last to talk to the president.”
Jill Biden refers to Bernal as her “work husband,” according to the book “American Woman,” published last month by New York Times reporter Katie Rogers — who also wrote that Bernal is “known to make life hell for junior aides who find him to be impatient, demanding, and overbearing.”
One source told The Post that Bernal “just sort of targets and goes in on certain people” — calling them “10 times in an hour” with feedback and direction — and that the sexual remarks become part of a “pressure cooker” environment.
“There’s no way [Jill Biden] doesn’t know. It has been going on so long,” the source said. “I don’t think she has a lot of advisers willing to give her a gut check. I think she thinks that Anthony’s like her bulldog protecting her.”
Another source, a former White House staffer, said: “There is genuine frustration with the first lady among the staff inside the White House. How can you write a children’s book about your husband fighting bullies while your most senior staffer harasses and berates the staff in your own office and your husband’s team on a regular basis?”
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Posted by NoMoreBS 2024-03-13 00:00||
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File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
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2024-03-13 08:53||
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Posted by swksvolFF 2024-03-13 17:34||
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