Who is Anthony Bernal?: The 'indispensable' Biden aide ditching House Oversight probe on his mental decline

The House Oversight Committee says it volition subpoena apical Biden household aide, Anthony Bernal, aft the committee said helium refused to attest arsenic portion of their probe into former President Biden's intelligence acuity and his usage of an automatic signature instrumentality that allowed aides to motion pardons, memos and different important documents connected Biden's behalf. 

"Jill Biden’s longtime adjutant Anthony Bernal is DEFYING Congress and REFUSING to attest time astir Joe Biden’s cognitive diminution aft the White House waived his enforcement privilege," the committee posted connected X Wednesday aft Bernal was expected to attest connected Thursday morning.

"He’s moving scared. The cover-up is collapsing. We volition subpoena him immediately."

By proxy, arsenic the archetypal lady's apical aide, Bernal became 1 of the astir influential radical successful the White House, according to caller reports, and helium was expected to look pugnacious questions astir what helium knew and erstwhile helium knew astir Biden’s intelligence decline.

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Former Biden adjutant Anthony Bernal, left, volition attest earlier the House Oversight Committee connected Thursday. (Getty)

"No 1 spent much time, whether it was successful the motorcade, connected the plane, successful the backstage residence astatine the White House, Camp David, and astatine some houses successful Delaware, cipher spent much idiosyncratic clip astir them and their household and the Biden household than Anthony," Democratic strategist Michael LaRosa, who served arsenic property caput to erstwhile archetypal woman Jill Biden, told Fox News Digital. 

LaRosa told Fox News Digital that Bernal, erstwhile peculiar adjunct to Biden and lawman manager of Oval Office Operations, was an "indispensable" portion of the Biden squad whose apical precedence was "protecting the Bidens," adjacent if it was politically harmful owed to a "personal and affectional attachment" that became much of a familial narration than a nonrecreational one. 

Fox News Digital previously reported connected however the book "Original Sin," by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios governmental analogous Alex Thompson, described Bernal arsenic 1 of the astir influential radical successful the White House who wielded loyalty arsenic a limb to weed retired the defectors.

During the pandemic, Biden traded the run way for lockdown. Bernal and Annie Tomasini, who is expected to attest adjacent month, recovered their mode into Joe and Jill Biden's pod, shifting the powerfulness dynamic of Biden's alleged "Politiburo," the radical of advisors who steered Biden's governmental orbit, the publication explained. 

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Then-first woman Jill Biden talks with her elder advisor Anthony Bernal earlier a code astatine the Carondelet Palace successful Quito, Ecuador, connected May 19, 2022. (ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"The value of Bernal and Tomasini is the grade to which their emergence successful the Biden White House signaled the occurrence of radical whose allegiance was to the Biden household – not to the presidency, not to the American people, not to the country, but to the Biden theology," the authors wrote. 

"Their instincts, to fell the shot connected often frivolous issues is what yet got them successful trouble," LaRosa told Fox News Digital astir the "bunker mentality" from Bernal and different aides astir Biden. 

"Their reflexive request to fell and support was a deficiency and a unsighted spot and I ne'er understood it."

A erstwhile White House staffer fired backmost against Tapper and Thompson's allegations astir Bernal successful a connection to Fox News Digital earlier this year.

"A batch of vignettes successful this publication are either false, exaggerated, oregon purposefully omit viewpoints that don’t acceptable the communicative they privation to push. Anthony was a beardown person with precocious standards and a mentor to many. He’s the benignant of idiosyncratic you privation connected a squad - he’s incredibly strategic, effective, and cares profoundly astir the radical helium manages," the erstwhile White House staffer said. 

Then-President Joe Biden talks to reporters connected the South Lawn of the White House connected Monday, Sept. 2, 2024 successful Washington, D.C., aft returning from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Politico reported successful 2021 that Bernal’s absorption benignant was viewed by immoderate arsenic "toxic" and would sometimes pb to crying staffers. 

LaRosa told Fox News Digital that Bernal has a "big heart" but acknowledged helium was 1 of the much "challenging" radical helium had to enactment with. 

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Bernal’s quality earlier the committee, if it happens, follows grounds from erstwhile Biden adjutant Neera Tanden, who said she was authorized to nonstop autopen signatures but was unaware of who successful the president's interior ellipse was giving her last clearance.

When Tanden was asked whether she ever discussed Biden's wellness oregon his fittingness to service arsenic president during her clip arsenic a apical aide, including during the play of the erstwhile president's wide criticized debate show past summer, Tanden said she did not. Lawmakers laid retired a database of names of officials she could person perchance discussed it with, and Tanden said "no" to each name, according to a root acquainted with her closed-door testimony. 

Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind, Alec Schemmel and Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.