Biden AdministrationBreaking NewsCommentaryCongressFifth AmendmentHunter BidenJill BidenJoe BidenpardonWhite House

Jill Biden Aide Refuses to Answer Whether Jill, Hunter Acted as President

One understands that the Fifth Amendment is a smart thing to invoke when appearing in a deposition on a thorny issue. However, it shouldn’t be terribly hard when you’re an aide to the former first lady and you’re asked if she or the president’s son acted as de facto president because the president himself was unable to do so.

The answer should be no. No, a thousand times, no. Easy as cake, right?

Anthony Bernal couldn’t do that when asked about former President Joe Biden’s autopen scandal — a refusal which should speak volumes.

Those of you who read Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s “Original Sin,” an insider account of how the president’s decline was even worse than initially suspected and the cover-up of that fact was both vast and deliberate, will be familiar with Bernal.

Now, I know all of you probably haven’t gone through the tome; there are those among you who are unwilling to give CNN hack Tapper a dime, for instance. (I’m among you all, but I pirated the ebook. Thanks for the free copy, Jake! Although I feel badly enough for your co-author that maybe I’ll Venmo him a buck or two.)

Anyhow, if you missed it, one of the major revelations that wasn’t part of the existing narrative was the troublingly outsized role played by Bernal. Usually, a first lady’s chief of staff shouldn’t be playing an outsized role in administration politics, particularly one as a hatchet man — which Bernal, from all accounts, was. (“He would not be welcome at my funeral,” one anonymous senior aide to Joe Biden said.)

Furthermore, he seemed to be powerful enough to be able to quash political matters — although, curiously, not in the name of the president himself. Bernal, sources told Tapper and Thompson, could effectively end virtually any discussion of a proposal with the words, “Jill isn’t going to like this.” Given that no part of the Constitution gives broad (or any) powers to first ladies, this is indeed an issue. That’s especially true since, in the late days of the administration, Hunter Biden joined the family retinue and was apparently with Team Jill.

Considering Hunter got a very wide-ranging pardon — albeit not signed with the autopen, for reasons one might reasonably guess at — this, and Bernal’s sweeping power within the Biden family’s 1600 Pennsylvania, is troubling.

But even when it comes to the autopen, a device that legally affixes the president’s signature on a document he doesn’t sign himself — provided, of course, he is the one who gives approval — Bernal was unwilling to answer questions about whether Jill, Hunter, or anyone else acted in the role of the president during the Biden administration.

During his testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, he was asked if “any unelected official or family member of President Joe Biden” executed the “duties of the presidency.”

“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question, pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution,” Bernal stated.

That was noted, then this: “Are you declining to answer the question put to you solely on the ground that you believe the answer will incriminate you?”

Fifth Amendment again.

“Mr. Bernal, did President Joe Biden ever instruct you to lie regarding his health at any time, including but not limited in your testimony to Congress today?”

Related:

WH Emails: Autopen Manager Was Given Pardon List Before Anybody Approved It

Fifth Amendment.

Well, you have to say this much: You know that whole “loyalty” thing that Joe Biden apparently prized so much in his White House staffing picks? Yeah, it turns out that when the ship is practically sunk, everyone turns to rats and scurries off.

Don’t get me wrong here: Taking the Fifth is absolutely the correct move for Anthony Bernal at this point in time. It is absolutely the worst thing you need to hear if your last name is Biden and you spent significant time hanging around the executive mansion between Jan. 20, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025.

The “if you’re innocent you have nothing to hide” slope is slippery, but seriously, come on. If there’s a problem with answering whether someone aside from the president usurped presidential powers, that’s damning in and of itself.

Bernal’s testimony came during the same week former President Biden attempted to defend his autopen pardons and commutations in an interview piece for The New York Times that ended up looking worse than he’d probably intended; read between the lines of the lengthy piece and you realize that the picture it painted was one where executive authority was distributed well beyond the executive in a matter specifically reserved for a single person by the Constitution.

It also raised questions about how lucid and aware Biden was of who was getting a pardon or commutation and why. This goes back to the thorniest of issues: Who made the call to pardon Hunter Biden when the president had avouched he would do no such thing?

Bernal, if he were a loyal servant of the White House, could have done them a world of good by not CYA-ing and saying that no unelected official or Biden family member usurped the constitutional power apportioned to the president. He acted in his own interest and CYA-ed.

Not an unintelligent move, mind you. But at this rate, Anthony Bernal might not be welcome at Jill Biden’s funeral, much less that unnamed aide’s.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).

Birthplace

Morristown, New Jersey

Education

Catholic University of America

Languages Spoken

English, Spanish

Topics of Expertise

American Politics, World Politics, Culture

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Source link

Related Posts

1 of 57