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.
Tapper and Thompson describe Bernal and Tomasini as “intensely loyal,” forming what they call an “older-brother-and-little-sister” dynamic. Notably, Tomasini held the title of deputy campaign manager—an unusual position for someone primarily seen as a staffer to the candidate’s spouse.
The pair also orchestrated a now-infamous moment during the campaign: loading a teleprompter for Biden ahead of a local interview, a decision that drew sharp criticism and became a lasting symbol of the campaign’s tightly controlled media strategy.
“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 noted that few came to Bernal’s defense, portraying him as someone who wielded his influence to purge “potential heretics” from Biden’s inner circle.
As Bernal earned a reputation for criticizing other aides, “some even described him as the worst person they had ever met,” Tapper and Thompson said.
The aides also assumed some of the roles of some residence staffers in the White House. Tapper and Thompson wrote that the pair of Biden insiders “had all-time access to the living quarters, with their White House badges reading ‘Res’ – uncommon for such aides.”
As the Biden campaign began laying the groundwork for a re-election bid, concerns emerged among some insiders about the president’s age and troubling battleground state polling. But according to the book, Bernal and other senior aides dismissed any talk of Vice President Kamala Harris launching her own campaign.
Bernal is quoted as saying bluntly, “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.
Tapper and Thompson report that Bernal went to great lengths to enhance Jill Biden’s “profile and glamour,” often offering blunt critiques of her appearance and wardrobe.
The authors note that he referred to the first lady simply as “Jill,” underscoring his unusually informal and influential role within her inner circle.
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