First lady's 'MeToo' protected
WASHINGTON — A top White House official has bullied and verbally sexually harassed colleagues for more than a decade, The Post has learned — but is considered “untouchable” because First Lady Jill Biden regards him as her “work husband.”
Two sources said that Anthony Bernal, 50, theorized to them that the size of a person’s thumb corresponds to their genitalia — saying so both at the White House and in prior roles during President Biden’s campaign and vice presidency under 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. “It is MeToo — classic MeToo.”
A second source recounted hearing Bernal speculate “often” about the endowments of fellow aides and even Secret Service agents.
“It was a lot of inappropriate remarks — talking about other people’s attractiveness and speculating about their sex lives at very weird moments,” a third person said, adding, “that’s actually sexual harassment.”
Four sources, meanwhile, said that the openly gay Bernal has hypothesized aloud in the workplace on colleagues’ sexuality 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.
“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.’ ”
The Post heard from almost a dozen current and former colleagues of Bernal, some of whom said they consider it “hypocritical” for Biden to keep Bernal on staff after vowing on his first day in office to fire aides “on the spot” for showing “disrespect.”
“He’s seen as untouchable due to his relationship with the first lady,” one ex-White House official said. “Staff have been told he’s ‘protected’ by Jill or that they should take it up with him directly.”
“The president and first lady have full confidence in Anthony’s character, as do I,” White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said Monday evening.
Bernal separately denied the claims, saying in a statement: “These unfounded attacks are not true.”