2020年的早期是黑暗的乔·拜登在媒体铺天盖地的负面报道和进步人士日渐消退的热情下，他在爱荷华州和新罕布什尔州的民主党初选遭遇了尴尬的结局。
安妮塔·邓恩和鲍勃·鲍尔出场。
随着他的政治生涯岌岌可危，这位前副总统提升了这对已婚夫妇的角色——他们是华盛顿顶级的民主党战略家，拥有数十年的经验，悄悄地指导着总统和总统候选人。
邓恩是一名通信专家，她负责拜登的竞选活动，在费城总部的一个小隔间里沉浸在竞选活动的细节中。奥巴马的前白宫法律顾问鲍尔将帮助制定竞选活动对拜登一些最棘手的政治弱点的回应，包括他儿子的海外商业交易。几个月后，拜登稳获民主党提名，并最终被推翻唐纳德·特朗普在11月的大选中。
盟友信用邓恩和鲍尔帮助复苏拜登的政治运作，降落在椭圆形办公室。
拜登的前高级顾问塞德里克·里士满(Cedric Richmond)对美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)表示:“他们是各自领域中最好的两位。"总统认识到了他们的才能——他在竞选期间依靠了他们，现在仍然如此."
今天，随着拜登进入或许是他总统任期中最混乱的时期，他再次求助于他的私人律师鲍尔和他的高级顾问邓恩。两人都是负责起草法律和公共关系应对发现机密文件消息人士称，在拜登位于特拉华州的家中和他在华盛顿的前办公室。
司法部长梅里克·加兰三周后任命了一名特别律师为了调查此事，甚至拜登的一些最大支持者也表示，文件崩溃已经成为总统的法律和公共关系混乱，零星的披露引发了对白宫处理情况的质疑。
“拜登和白宫似乎违反了危机沟通的每一条规则——速度、透明度和悔悟，”奥巴马的前顾问大卫·阿克塞尔罗德说写于《大西洋月刊》上周。
尽管如此，现任和前任同事都表示相信，邓恩和鲍尔可以帮助引导总统对特别顾问的调查做出良性结论。在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时，他们中的一些人透露了这对权力夫妇的深刻经历是如何为拜登总统任期内这个越来越令人担忧的时刻做准备的。
民主党的步兵
邓恩和鲍尔已经在民主政治中工作了几十年，绘制了不同的权力路径，但在关键时刻重叠。
邓恩于20世纪80年代和90年代在华盛顿崭露头角，为各种民主党议员、候选人和政党附属团体管理沟通和战略业务，包括民主党参议员竞选委员会，在那里她第一次见到了拜登和鲍尔，后者担任该组织的法律顾问。
鲍尔在总部位于华盛顿的律师事务所Perkins Coie工作了30多年，不时请假参加总统竞选活动，并担任奥巴马总统的白宫法律顾问。他在1999年比尔·克林顿总统弹劾审判期间担任国会民主党人的法律顾问，并就民主和投票相关的法律问题撰写了大量文章。
两人第一次合作是在前新泽西参议员比尔·布拉德利的2000年总统竞选中，邓恩负责沟通，鲍尔担任总法律顾问。鲍尔还在布拉德利的初选辩论准备期间扮演了前副总统戈尔的角色——后来又在拜登的2020年竞选中扮演了同样的角色，先是伯尼·桑德斯，然后是川普总统。
2004年，鲍尔加入了当时的参议员约翰·克里(John Kerry)命运多舛的白宫竞选，同事们说，他因向强大的客户讲述艰难的事实而闻名。克里竞选团队的同事唐·韦里利(Don Verrilli)后来成为美国司法部长，他回忆说，鲍尔负责通知克里，“他必须放弃任何挑战选举的想法”，乔治·w·布什总统以微弱优势赢得了选举。
韦里利说:“(竞选团队)正在寻求他对是继续战斗还是让步的判断。”。“这是一个很大的进步，而[鲍尔]就是做到这一点的人。”
邓恩和鲍尔在2008年重聚，成为当时的参议员巴拉克·奥巴马新贵政治运作的早期支持者。邓恩将成为奥巴马战略和信息的总设计师，鲍尔将加入竞选活动担任总法律顾问。两人后来都在奥巴马的白宫工作，然后回到私营部门——鲍尔去了珀金斯·科伊，邓恩去了她共同创立的通信公司SKDKnickerbocker。
这两人参与了拜登关于在2016年寻求总统职位的审议-当他最终选择退出时-并再次在2020年。当拜登决定参选时，邓恩和鲍尔加入了竞选团队，帮助他走向胜利。与此同时，鲍尔与哈佛大学学者杰克·戈德史密斯合著了一本书，名为《特朗普之后:重建总统任期》
拜登当选后，鲍尔和邓恩选择退出白宫的官方角色，但仍保持联系。鲍尔继续以个人身份代表拜登，邓恩在白宫的临时工作和她在SKDKnickerbocker的咨询工作之间跳来跳去。
这一安排引起了仔细审查。批评者指责邓恩在私营部门工作期间与白宫保持非官方联系，无视道德法规，根据她的财务披露，她的客户包括辉瑞公司、洛克希德·马丁公司和各种金融机构。
政府监督机构旋转门项目(revolutionary Door Project)的执行董事杰夫·豪泽(Jeff Hauser)表示:“每当一家公司面临新法规或民主党政府起诉的严重危险时，他们就会开始向SKDKnickerbocker开支票，让其明星球员努力消除威胁。”。"邓恩是他们最大的明星。"
邓恩最终在2022年5月全职回到拜登政府，一名白宫官员表示，她已经从SKDKnickerbocker撤资，不再拥有该公司的股权。这位官员补充说，白宫法律顾问办公室已经审查了她的财务披露，并在适当的时候提出了回避的建议——这是所有白宫雇员的惯例。
完全的信任和信赖
打开华盛顿特区任何一份列出该地区最有权势夫妇的出版物，鲍尔和邓恩几乎肯定会被列出来。这两人得到了同事和助手的广泛支持，他们将他们视为各自领域的专家和下一代民主党政治运作人员的导师。“他们都不想引人注目，你永远不会感觉到他们在推进自己的事业...这可能是他们如此受拜登信任的原因之一，”一位前同事说。
一名白宫官员说，邓恩负责白宫和更广泛的政府的信息传递和协调，她的工作范围从生育权到学生债务减免。她为拜登最重要的一些立法胜利做了大量工作，如通货膨胀削减法案、两党基础设施法和名为CHIPS的半导体拨款法案。
现任和前任官员将邓恩描述为拜登最信任的顾问之一，总统对她的政治才能保持“完全的信任和信赖”，里士满说。
在奥巴马2008年和2012年的竞选活动中，里克·皮尔德斯(Rick Pildes)与鲍尔一起担任高级法律顾问，他因冷静的性情和展示“对法律决定如何折射政治”的认识而赢得了声誉。
鲍尔在纽约大学的同事、奥巴马的前白宫助理法律顾问特雷弗·莫里森(Trevor Morrison)说，“有些人在大房间里，当他们想表达自己的观点时，会越说越大声。“他往往会反其道而行之——他说话越来越小声，人们努力想听到他说的每一个字。”
同事们说，鲍尔和邓恩都受益于彼此的技能。
“当鲍勃试图在政治领域思考一个棘手的法律问题时，他在一定程度上依赖于安妮塔相当敏锐的洞察力和出色的直觉，”韦里利说，“安妮塔理解律师所说的话和按章办事的重要性。”
对隐瞒真相的指控?
作为总统的私人律师和最受信任的沟通策略师，鲍尔和邓恩现在正接受特别顾问的调查，他们可能是拜登核心圈子里最重要的声音。但观察人士表示，这种责任也让他们承受了一路上任何明显失误的负担。
尽管第一次意识到分类记录在11月中期选举前几天，在华盛顿的佩恩·拜登中心，白宫直到12月份才披露这些文件的存在，当时哥伦比亚广播公司新闻(CBS News)首次报道了这一决定，这一决定引起了巨大的关注。两党的批评者都指责政府将政治置于透明度之上，内布拉斯加州共和党众议员唐·培根(Don Bacon)甚至称拜登的行为等同于“掩盖”。
鲍尔反驳了那些指控。一月份，在12月下旬在拜登的车库里发现了额外的文件以及随后任命了一名特别顾问之后，他发表声明为拜登对调查的处理进行辩护，强调透明运作和不超越调查这两个相互竞争的目标。
鲍尔说:“我们试图在适当情况下平衡公共透明度的重要性与保护调查完整性所需的既定规范和限制。”
自那以后，多名白宫官员重复了这种辩护。白宫法律顾问办公室发言人伊恩·萨姆斯(Ian Sams)向美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)指出，他在1月23日对记者说，总统希望平衡“保护和捍卫正在进行的调查的完整性与提供适当的公开信息之间的紧张关系。”
批评人士说，白宫有选择地传播信息给人留下了这样的印象:它在隐瞒一些破坏性的进展。1月9日，当白宫首次承认11月初在拜登的华盛顿办公室发现“少量”机密文件时，他们省略了几周后，即11月中旬，联邦调查局搜查办公室的细节。
然而，后来，当联邦调查局在1月20日对拜登的家进行搜查时，鲍尔和白宫在第二天宣布了这一进展。周三，当联邦调查局搜查拜登在特拉华州雷霍博斯海滩的家时，鲍尔发表声明当搜索还在进行时。
“更长远的观点”
在盟友中，鲍尔建立了尊重制度和规范的声誉，几位前同事描述了他过去的一些时刻，这些时刻可以指导他如何对待机密文件调查。
前同事们回忆起奥巴马政府早期的一些时刻，当时鲍尔作为白宫法律顾问，阻止了政府官员就政治指控案件与司法部接触——特别是当赢得公关胜利的诱惑可能威胁到联邦调查或起诉的完整性时。
韦里利说，“鲍尔绝对热衷于保持白宫和司法部之间的严格分离”。
其他前同事指出，在他过去的一些时候，鲍尔正确地判断了一场明显的危机在短期内可能会如何发展，并围绕这些预测制定了一项法律和沟通战略。
更多:拜登的机密文件与特朗普的相比有什么关系?
“他从长远的角度看问题，”皮尔德斯说。“他能顶住压力，不至于一时反应过度，并且理解法律方面如何融入更大的政治环境。”
现在，鲍尔的新角色和邓恩在白宫的持久影响力可能会让他们处于一个新的位置:在公众眼中。同事们表示，两人非常谨慎，倾向于拒绝出风头，尤其是以华盛顿的政治标准来看，在华盛顿，成功往往需要自我膨胀。
鲍尔在他的书《特朗普之后》(After Trump)中向那些发现自己在法律危险时期为总统提供咨询的人预示了风险。
“因此，不可避免的是，”他写道，“总统们赖以避开或解决争议的顾问可能会陷入争议之中。”
In Biden's White House, a behind-the-scenes power couple comes to the fore
The early days of 2020 were dark ones for Joe Biden, whose sputtering Democratic primary campaign had suffered embarrassing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire under a deluge of bad press and waning enthusiasm among progressives.
Enter Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer.
With his political career on the line, the former vice president elevated the roles of the married couple -- two of Washington's top Democratic strategists, with decades of experience quietly guiding presidents and presidential candidates.
Dunn, a communications specialist, took control of Biden's campaign, immersing herself in its minutiae from a small cubicle at its Philadelphia headquarters. Bauer, a former Obama White House counsel, would help shape the campaign's response to some of Biden's thorniest political vulnerabilities, including his son's overseas business dealings. Within months Biden had secured the Democratic nomination, and eventually toppled Donald Trump in the November general election.
Allies credit Dunn and Bauer with helping resuscitate Biden's political operation to land him in the Oval Office.
"They are two of the best in the country in their respective fields," Cedric Richmond, a former senior adviser to Biden, told ABC News. "The president recognizes their talent -- he leaned on them during the campaign and continues to."
Today, as Biden enters perhaps the most tumultuous period of his presidency, he is again turning to the counsel of Bauer, his personal attorney, and Dunn, his senior adviser. Both are among a small coterie of aides responsible for crafting the legal and public relations response to the discovery of confidential records at Biden's Delaware home and his former Washington office, sources said.
Three weeks after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter, even some of Biden's biggest boosters say the document debacle has become a legal and public relations mess for the president, with the sporadic drip-drip of revelations prompting questions about the White House's handling of the situation.
"Biden and the White House seemingly have violated every precept -- speed, transparency, contrition -- of crisis communications," former Obama adviser David Axelrod wrote in The Atlantic last week.
Nevertheless, current and former colleagues have expressed confidence that Dunn and Bauer can help guide the president toward a benign conclusion to the special counsel's probe. In interviews with ABC News, several of them reveal how the power couple's deep experience has prepared them for this increasingly fraught moment in Biden's presidency.
Democratic foot soldiers
Dunn and Bauer have worked for decades in Democratic politics, charting separate paths to power but overlapping at key moments along the way.
Dunn cut her teeth in Washington in the 1980s and '90s, running communications and strategy operations for various Democratic lawmakers, candidates and party-affiliated groups, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee -- where she first met both Biden and Bauer, who served as legal counsel to the organization.
Bauer spent more than three decades with the Washington-based law firm Perkins Coie, taking intermittent leaves to work on presidential campaigns, and doing a stint as White House counsel to President Barack Obama. He served as counsel to congressional Democrats during President Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial and has written extensively on democracy and voting-related legal issues.
The pair first joined forces on former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign, with Dunn handling communications and Bauer working as general counsel. Bauer also played the role of former Vice President Al Gore during Bradley's primary debate preparations -- and would later do the same for Biden's 2020 campaign, first as Sen. Bernie Sanders, then President Donald Trump.
In 2004, Bauer signed onto then-Sen. John Kerry's ill-fated bid for the White House, where colleagues said he minted his reputation for telling powerful clients difficult truths. Don Verrilli, a colleague on Kerry's campaign who went on to become the U.S. Solicitor General, recalled Bauer taking charge of informing Kerry that "he had to relinquish any thought of challenging the election," which President George W. Bush had won by a narrow margin.
"[The campaign] was looking for his judgment on whether to keep fighting or concede," Verrilli said. "That was a big step, and [Bauer] was the one who did it."
Dunn and Bauer reunited in 2008 as early supporters of then-Sen. Barrack Obama's upstart political operation. Dunn would emerge as a chief architect of Obama's strategy and messaging, and Bauer joined on as the campaign's general counsel. Both later served in the Obama White House before returning to the private sector -- Bauer to Perkins Coie and Dunn to SKDKnickerbocker, the communications firm she cofounded.
The pair was involved in Biden's deliberations about seeking the presidency in 2016 -- when he ultimately opted out -- and again in 2020. When Biden decided to run, Dunn and Bauer joined the campaign and helped steer him to victory. Along the way, Bauer co-authored a book with Harvard academic Jack Goldsmith, entitled, "After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency."
After Biden was elected, Bauer and Dunn opted out of official roles in the White House, but remained within reach. Bauer continued to represent Biden in a personal capacity, and Dunn hopscotched between temporary White House stints and her consulting work at SKDKnickerbocker,
The arrangement attracted scrutiny. Critics accused Dunn of flaunting ethics regulations by maintaining unofficial ties to the White House during her time in the private sector, where her clients included Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, and various financial institutions, according to her financial disclosures.
"Whenever a corporation is in serious danger of new regulations or prosecutions by a Democratic administration, they start cutting checks to SKDKnickerbocker, which sets its star players to work neutralizing the threat," said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a government watchdog. "Dunn is the biggest star they have."
Dunn eventually returned to the Biden administration full-time in May 2022, and a White House official said she has since divested from SKDKnickerbocker, where she no longer has an ownership stake. The official added that the White House counsel's office has reviewed her financial disclosure and advised on recusals where appropriate -- a precaution customary for all White House employees.
'Complete faith and trust'
Open any Washington, D.C., publication that lists the district's most powerful couples, and Bauer and Dunn will almost certainly be listed. The two enjoy broad support from colleagues and aides, who regard them as experts in their fields and mentors to the next generation of Democratic political operatives. "Neither of them seeks the limelight and you never have the sense that they're advancing their own careers ... which might be one of the reasons they're so trusted by Biden," said a former colleague.
A White House official said Dunn oversees messaging and coordination for the White House and the broader administration, with her portfolio ranging from reproductive rights to student debt relief. She's worked extensively on some of Biden's most important legislative triumphs, like the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the semiconductor funding bill, called CHIPS.
Current and former officials describe Dunn as one of Biden's most trusted advisers, and the president maintains "complete faith and trust in her political aptitude," said Richmond.
Bauer has earned a reputation for his calm temperament and for demonstrating an "awareness of how the legal decisions refract on the politics" of a situation, said Rick Pildes, who served alongside Bauer as a senior legal adviser to Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
"There are people who, in large rooms, when they want to get their point across, will speak louder and louder," said Trevor Morrison, a colleague of Bauer's at New York University and a former associate White House counsel for Obama. "He tends to do the opposite -- he speaks more and more quietly and people strain to hear every word he says."
Colleagues say Bauer and Dunn both benefit from each other's skillsets.
"When Bob is trying to think through a difficult legal problem in the political sphere, he is relying in part on Anita's considerable perceptiveness and excellent instincts," Verrilli said, "and Anita appreciates the importance of what the lawyers say and doing things by the book."
Accusations of a cover-up?
As the personal attorney and the most trusted communications strategist to a president now under investigation by a special counsel, Bauer and Dunn have emerged as perhaps the most consequential voices in Biden’s inner circle. But observers say that responsibility has also exposed them to the burden of any perceived missteps along the way.
Despite first becoming aware of the existence of classified records at the Penn Biden Center in Washington days before the midterm elections in November, the White House failed to reveal the documents' existence until December, when it was first reported by CBS News -- a decision that has attracted immense scrutiny. Critics in both parties have accused the administration of prioritizing politics over transparency, with Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., going as far as calling Biden's conduct tantamount to a "cover-up."
Bauer has pushed back on those accusations. In January, following the revelation that additional documents had been found in Biden's garage in late December and the subsequent appointment of a special counsel, he released a statement defending Biden's handling of the investigation, highlighting the competing goals of operating with transparency and not getting ahead of the probe.
"We have attempted to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the investigation's integrity," Bauer said.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP, FILE
Since then, multiple White House officials have repeated variations of that defense. Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel's office, directed ABC News to remarks he made on Jan. 23, when he told reporters that the president wanted to balance the "a tension between protecting and safeguarding the integrity of an ongoing investigation with providing information publicly appropriate with that."
Critics say the White House's selective dissemination of information has left the impression that it is withholding some damaging developments. On Jan. 9, when the White House first acknowledged that "a small number" of classified documents had been found in Biden's D.C. office space in early November, they omitted details about an FBI search of the office weeks later, in mid-November.
Later, however, when the FBI conducted a search of Biden's home on Jan. 20, Bauer and the White House announced the development the following day. On Wednesday, when the FBI searched Biden's Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home, Bauer released a statement while the search was still underway.
'A longer-term perspective'
Among allies, Bauer has cultivated a reputation for respecting institutions and norms, and several former colleagues described moments from his past that could instruct how he is approaching the classified documents probe.
Former colleagues recalled moments from early in the Obama administration when Bauer, as White House counsel, stood in the way of administration officials who wanted to reach out to the Justice Department about politically charged cases -- particularly when the temptation to score a public relations win could threaten the integrity of a federal probe or prosecution.
"Bauer was absolutely zealous about maintaining strict separation" between the White House and Justice Department, Verrilli said.
Other former colleagues pointed to moments in his past when Bauer correctly gauged how an apparent crisis in the short term might unfold down the road -- and crafted a legal and communications strategy around those projections.
"He sees things from a longer-term perspective," said Pildes. "He can resist pressure to overreact in the moment, and understands how the legal side fits into the larger political environment."
Now, Bauer's newfound role and Dunn's staying power in the White House may be putting them in a novel position: in the public eye. Colleagues say the two are highly discreet and inclined to reject the limelight, particularly by the standards of politics in Washington, where success often requires self-aggrandizement.
In his book "After Trump," Bauer foreshadowed the risk to those who find themselves counseling a president during legally perilous times.
"It is thus inevitable," he wrote, "that the counsel on whom presidents rely to stave off or address controversy might end up in the middle of controversy."
