Powerful White House official — and Jill Biden’s ‘work husband’ — is a #MeToo nightmare with claims of bullying, sexual harassment
WASHINGTON — 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.’”
In total, The Post heard from almost a dozen current and former colleagues of Bernal as part of its investigation.
The sources who had varying degrees of negative personal experiences with Bernal said they were coming forward because they want him held accountable for what they describe as a long record of bullying.
Some sources also said they consider it “hypocritical” for Biden to keep Bernal on his staff after the president vowed on his first day in office to fire aides “on the spot” if he hears that they have shown “disrespect” to people in their professional conduct.
“It reflects poorly on the president and the first lady,” said one of the sources who described verbal torment.
“They talk a big game about integrity, decency, and kindness but when you work for the Bidens, you experience anything but that,” said another former White House adviser, who, like other sources, asked for anonymity in order to speak candidly and for fear of retaliation.
“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.”
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.”
In a statement 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.”
In a separate statement, Bernal denied the claims, saying: “These unfounded attacks are not true.”
Expert: ‘It’s a power play’
A prominent expert on workplace sexual harassment policy told The Post that Bernal’s alleged behavior fits the criteria for wrongful conduct.
“The behavior you described is indeed sexual harassment,” said Louise Fitzgerald, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who has consulted for federal agencies and served as an expert in high-profile federal court cases.
“It is the form of harassment that scientists refer to as gender hostility or gender harassment,” Fitzgerald said.
“It generally has nothing at all to do with getting somebody into bed; rather it’s a power play whose purpose is to denigrate individuals on the basis of their sex, sexuality, or gender presentation.”
Fitzgerald added that gender hostility “is by far the most common form of sexual harassment.”
“Harassment happens most often in workplaces in which, whatever the policy may say, employees perceive that sexual harassment is not taken seriously, it is risky to complain, and there are no meaningful consequences to the perpetrator,” she said.
“This type of behavior is typically prohibited in every sexual harassment policy in use today; so, in organizational terms, it is indeed sexual harassment,” Fitzgerald added.
“Although many people think harassment is limited to situations where an employee is hitting on a co-worker or a supervisor makes promises or threats to get sex, this is not the case. Gender harassment or hostility is not a ‘come-on’ — rather, it is a putdown.”
Fitzgerald also said that as in Bernal’s case, “it seems likely that such sexual hostility frequently co-occurs with bullying behavior; indeed it can be thought of as a sexualized form of bullying.”
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?”
That source added: “This is the second administration I’ve worked in and I’ve never seen White House staff behavior this shocking. I hope a third party will step in and investigate or do an audit and interview staffers in secret without fear of retribution.
“Working for the Bidens is like living in another century,” that person went on. “You really cannot speak up without fear of personal or professional retaliation.
“He is by far the worst and most well-known abuser, but the Biden White House is a magnet for ugly and abusive workplace behavior. It’s totally inexcusable [in] this day [and] age, especially with Biden’s own narrative about standing up to bullies,” the source continued.
“Her book and his stern lecture at the beginning of the administration about respect for colleagues is all bulls—. 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.”
The ex-staffer also noted that “the Bidens wouldn’t tolerate their own daughter, son, or grandchildren being treated the way Bernal abuses his power and his colleagues.”
A third source said Bernal’s behavior contrasts with some other senior White House staff, including a cadre of West Wing aides close in age to the president who are kind to younger staff.
“I don’t think he’s pulled the wool over [Jill Biden’s] eyes. I think it’s really nice to have someone that’s gonna do the dirty work, the hard stuff and have hard conversations with people,” said that source.
“And then I think it kind of got out of hand and has gotten out of control. I think she knows and it’s just their dynamic.”
This source added: “He calls people ‘stupid,’ he plays games with people — basically he talks s— about everyone to everyone [about their] intelligence, what they’re wearing, or what they look like in their clothes.”
Yet another source observed that Bernal “vacations with the first family. They’re his life and that gives him carte blanche.”
‘He’s a tough dude’
There have been prior tests of President Biden’s vow to punish bullying — most notably when former White House spokesman TJ Ducklo vulgarly disparaged a female reporter and invoked her sex life. Ducklo resigned under pressure in February 2021 but later was rehired by Biden’s re-election campaign.
In total, five sources described to The Post instances of bullying, claiming that Bernal frequently is so demeaning in conversation that he reduces colleagues to tears, mendaciously giving last-minute input on projects, and grilling people on whether they are loyal.
“He says, ‘Dr. Biden would have a problem with that’ or ‘Dr. Biden wouldn’t like that.’ And nobody knows what she really wants. Half the time, you don’t know if he talked to her or not,” said a former colleague.
In one example described by two sources and previously reported by Rogers, Bernal pushed for Jill Biden to speak Spanish in public remarks, despite her unease, which led to embarrassing stumbles when she mispronounced “si se puede” and “bodega.”
A number of former co-workers defended Bernal to The Post, or said that what would appear to be inappropriate behavior may be related to his long working hours — and argued that his abrasive nature is indication of no more than high standards.
“Anthony is tough. He’s a tough dude. And he’s there to get the job done. He’s there to fight for the first lady,” said one ex-colleague who said they personally did not feel bullied, but acknowledged that “it’s not lost on me that he is intense and he can rub people the wrong way.”
Another insider who has worked at the White House, when asked about alleged inappropriate remarks to co-workers, said that in that environment, “you’re working like 80% of your life … so you get close to a lot of your colleagues.”
That colleague also said they believe Bernal truly speaks on the first lady’s behalf when giving input to other officials and only does so at her direction.
Bernal is “arguably the most trusted human to her — obviously other than her husband,” the source said.
“People want to call him a dictator and it’s their right to do so, everyone processes emotions differently and some people don’t like to be in stressful work environments,” said yet another source, a former East Wing staffer.
“No human is perfect. But we really have the responsibility to be as perfect as humanly possible, because the American people deserve protection. And his expectations reflected that.”
When asked about those opinions, one of Bernal’s detractors insisted that some of his victims develop a form of Stockholm syndrome.
A former speechwriter for Jill Biden, who three sources said repeatedly broke down in tears after discussions with Bernal, claimed to The Post that she actually was crying about school shootings and the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Meanwhile, two former colleagues said Bernal’s bad rap has made it difficult to line up volunteers to do advance work for when the first lady travels.
“Staffers in the state campaign offices would draw straws for who would have to staff Jill when she came to campaign there,” said one Democratic strategist who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign.
“Everyone on the president’s staff just wanted to avoid her or being assigned to work with her team, because it meant being bullied by Anthony.”
