On Friday, ex-Biden White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini became the third key aide to take the Fifth Amendment, invoking her right against self-incrimination and declining to way whether Team Biden “instructed her to lie” about Biden’s health. Network coverage? Zip. Zilch. Zero.
She’s the third aide to take the Fifth, after Biden’s personal doctor Kevin O’Connor and Jill Biden’s chief of staff Anthony Bernal.
“There is now a pattern of key Biden confidants seeking to shield themselves from criminal liability for this potential conspiracy,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) declared after the meeting with Tomasini.
Comer added: “She also pleaded the Fifth when asked if she ever advised President Biden on the handling of classified documents found in his garage, if President Biden or anyone in the White House instructed her to conceal or destroy classified material found at President Biden’s home or office, and if she ever conspired with anyone in the White House to hide information regarding the Biden family’s ‘business’ dealings. It’s apparent they would rather hide key information to protect themselves and Joe Biden than be truthful with the American people about this historic scandal.”
Here’s how NewsNation covered the story on Friday:
As usual, the networks have demonstrated a blatant double standard on what constitutes a White House scandal. From Monday through Friday, the evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, and NBC combined for more than half an hour (30 minutes, 22 seconds) on internal MAGA conflict over Justice Department disclosures about the probe into the late child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
ABC accounted for almost half the Epstein obsession (14 minutes, 51 seconds). NBC was second (nine minutes, 57 seconds) and CBS was third (six minutes, 34 seconds).
On Friday night, the sober and supposedly serious PBS News Hour wallowed in the trashy Epstein scandal-mongering for 13 minutes and 30 seconds. Washington Week with The Atlantic was even worse, with most of its program (17 and a half minutes) on Trump and Epstein. The moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, brought the hype in the introduction:
GOLDBERG: This week, President Trump found himself in an unfamiliar and maddening position. Some of his most enthusiastic supporters are wondering if he himself is involved in a Jeffrey Epstein cover-up. A president who rose to prominence promoting conspiracy theories now confronts a conspiracy theory about himself. The consequences for his movement and his presidency could be enormous – next!
Defunded: PBS's "Washington Week with The Atlantic" spent most its half-hour on conservative infighting over Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Moderator Jeffrey Goldberg began with hype: "The consequences for his movement and his presidency could be ENORMOUS!" pic.twitter.com/PYAv4Xx6LQ
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 20, 2025
The same pattern happened on Wednesday, when the networks skipped over Anthony Bernal taking the Fifth. He’s a major figure in Original Sin, the Alex Thompson-Jake Tapper book on hiding Biden’s cognitive decline. “Biden’s aides would say that she ["Doctor" Jill] was one of the most powerful First Ladies in history, and as a result he became one of the most influential people in the White House,” wrote Thompson and Tapper. They touted Bernal as the “loyalty police” and one of the “protectors of the myth.” That's obviously still true.
Fun fact: Jake Tapper also skipped over Bernal taking the Fifth on his two hours of his show The Lead on Wednesday...as he skipped over Tomasini in his two hours on Friday, in which Tapper, like his pal Jeffrey Goldberg, heavily obsessed over Epstein.
