Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina In the acknowledgements of her 2019 memoir, JILL BIDEN thanks over two dozen members of “Team Jill,” as her staff call themselves. But only one staffer got a full paragraph. “A special thank-you to ANTHONY BERNAL , who spent countless hours, holidays, and weekends to push me to write,” she wrote. “He knows how much I love him and respect him.” Two years later, Bernal finds himself as the most powerful person in the First Lady’s office and, as a result, an influential figure inside the White House as Dr. Biden remains one of the most important advisers to the president. While Bernal carries the low-key title of “advisor to the first lady,” planning for nearly every event or speech, along with political requests, goes through him, Democrats inside and outside the White House say. And the way he has wielded that power has made Bernal one of the most polarizing people in the White House, according to interviews with more than two dozen White House staffers, former campaign aides, and people who worked with him during the Obama administration. Bernal’s allies and enemies alike say that his loyalty to the First Lady is absolute. Even many of his detractors concede that his creative talents and attention to detail have benefitted Dr. Biden. But many of these same officials argue that Bernal’s pursuit of perfection on behalf of the First Lady does not excuse the way he treats some other staffers. Many described him as “berating” and “toxic” because of his unfiltered criticism of others and tendency to trash talk his colleagues behind their backs. Some compare him to MERYL STREEP’s character in “Devil Wears Prada” while another equated him to the ever-conspiring Littlefinger in “Game of Thrones.” “Anthony's loyalty to our team and the First Family is unrivaled, and he holds himself, and all of us, to the highest standards,” said JULISSA REYNOSO , the First Lady’s chief of staff. "There is no one at the White House with a bigger heart than Anthony, which is one of several reasons why so many in the First Lady's office have worked with him for years. He cares deeply about the personal and professional growth of his colleagues.” Stories of Bernal making staffers cry are an open secret in the Biden world with seemingly everyone knowing someone who has been on the receiving end. Two former campaign staffers said they heard Bernal call people “stupid” in meetings or over the phone. During the campaign and in the White House, some staffers felt the behavior was so noxious that they began surreptitiously recording him in meetings, according to two officials who others confided in about recording him. West Wing Playbook has not heard the recordings. The First Lady’s office did not address the recordings in their comment. “He has a constituency of one and he’s very effective on her behalf,” said one Biden official familiar with the dynamic. “The problem is that no one who has worked with him trusts him, and that’s not good for him or her.” A White House official defended Bernal as “warm,” “generous,” and “brilliant” (“this is a guy who can do three-digit, four-digit multiplication in his head!”). They did concede, however, that “Anthony is as quick with a compliment as he is with a critique.” A former WH official who worked with Bernal and considers him a friend—and described him as "the most loyal staffer I've ever seen"—put it this way: "Even if you’re his friend, you know he’ll talk shit about you." A former advance and scheduling staffer in Vice President AL GORE’s office, Bernal first joined the Biden orbit in 2008 as part of the team assigned to BARACK OBAMA’s VP choice. "Anthony is exceptional and extremely loyal to Dr. Biden and the entire Biden family," said longtime Democratic operative PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, who helped Bernal get that position. Bernal and Dr. Biden connected quickly, friends say. After splitting champagne and french fries on election night in 2008, the two became seemingly inseparable, people familiar with their relationship said. When the Bidens went into quarantine last year during the campaign, Bernal and ANNIE TOMASINI —now director of Oval Office operations—moved to Wilmington and stayed together to staff them, further solidifying their importance to the family. In the East Wing, Bernal earns the maximum White House salary and the top title of “assistant to the president,” the same as Reynoso who is set to depart to be ambassador to Spain. In 2009, only MICHELLE OBAMA’s chief of staff carried an “assistant to the president” title. People interviewed for this story are divided on how much the First Lady knows about Bernal’s behavior. Some believe she would intervene if she did know. Others argue that she wouldn’t care if she did because people should toughen up given that it’s the White House. And many think that she has seen enough glimpses to know but doesn't intervene because it's all on her behalf—he’s the bad cop and she’s the good one. The First Lady’s office declined to make Bernal or Dr. Biden available. | 
