Who's Running The Country?
While the president has said he has no plans to step aside, he is known be talking to vast numbers of people, but only listening to views of a very tight circle, including those of his wife.
And Jill is said to have taken a dim view of those wishing to kick her husband off the ticket, as it's claimed she's the driving force between his insistence on staying in the race. The claim was made by ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz moments after Biden's make or break interview with the network Friday night.
The 'inner circle' of voices that include a select circle of advisers – including son, Hunter, are telling Biden, 81, that he can win and that he needs to keep going with his re-election bid.
So who are the rest of the inner circle? According to the New York Post,
President Biden’s inner circle has gotten smaller following his disastrous debate last week — with his wife’s top aide Anthony Bernal emerging as one of the 81-year-old’s key advisers alongside longtime confidante Mike Donilon, four sources close to or inside the White House tell The Post.
Bernal, 51, is a divisive figure for allegedly bullying and sexually harassing colleagues — and his influence was likened by three sources to that held by the mystic Grigori Rasputin over the family and court of Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia.
First lady Jill Biden considers Bernal her “work husband” and he’s also close to scandal-plagued first son Hunter, whom Bernal greeted with a hug June 11 after his felony gun conviction.
Bernal in particular seems to be closest to the center:
A White House source told The Post that many of the president’s old guard of longtime aides are believed to be left out of the loop of discussions “about what’s next” — saying Bernal, who frequently vacations with the first family, “seriously” has a Rasputin-like pull over the first family.
Another source said they agreed with the Rasputin analogy — describing Bernal’s influence and immunity from consequences for alleged personal misconduct as perplexing to fellow aides.
“He’s like a tick who has just latched himself on for the last 15 years,” this source said.
According to another Daily Mail story,
At public events, in meetings, and even on family holidays, Bernal is a permanent fixture in the Biden furniture. Nothing, it seems, passes without his approval.
'He has an unmatched ability to influence things in the president's team,' one former co-worker told the New York Post in March.
In March, the New York Post reported on sexual harassment allegations against Bernal:
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.
. . . “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.”
. . . 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. 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.’”
Ingrid Jacques reviewed the Biden family situation in USA Today:
Biden’s wife must know better than anyone how her husband has declined in recent years. Yet, she and other close aides have gone out of their way to make sure the president interacts with as few people in the White House as possible, recent reporting by Axios confirms.
The answer is pretty simple. For Exhibit A, look no further than the first lady’s landing on the cover of Vogue just days after her husband’s flop of a debate performance.
. . . It’s not a stretch to say that the first lady is pulling a lot of the strings that her husband can no longer pull. And she doesn’t want to give up that power.
That’s led to comparisons with another first lady: Edith Wilson, who took over most presidential duties during the last few years of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency after he suffered a stroke in 1919. The public was kept largely in the dark.
But Jill Biden isn't Edith Wilson -- someone is actually pulling Dr Jill's strings as well. It looks like that's Anthony Bernal. The parallel isn't to Edith Wilson, the parallel is to her contemporary Rasputin.