WASHINGTON (AP) – Moving from house to house is a challenge in the best of circumstances, and even with first-rate changes like housekeepers and other employees who work at the White House.
But the coronavirus pandemic can be a complicating factor, as the executive mansion prepares for a new president and performs the Induction Day ritual of removing one leader and settling in another.
It is usually a precision operation: the two movements are usually performed in about five hours. The clock would normally start ticking when presidents who leave and who enter leave the White House together to go to the Capitol for the inauguration ceremony. The process would continue during the ceremony and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
“They basically have moving trucks waiting outside the White House gates,” said Matt Costello, a historian at the White House Historical Association. “And as soon as the president and the president-elect leave, they wave at the moving trucks and pack the stuff of the outgoing president, and then unpack everything from the new first family.”
Biden’s wife, Jill, said on Friday that she and the president-elect had spent the past two months getting ready to move out of their home in Wilmington, Delaware, and that they were “tidying up our lockers this morning.”
But things are going to play out a little differently this year.
President Donald Trump, still angry at the loss of re-election, is skipping office. He is also leaving the city before Biden takes the oath of office, which means that the two will not go to the Capitol together. Depending on when Trump leaves, housekeepers and other household officials who help move presidents’ belongings may gain an initial edge in packaging and unpacking.
Inauguration planners reduced the traditional list of events this year because of the pandemic, which now accounts for nearly 400,000 deaths in the United States. A lunch for the new president at the Capitol has been canceled, and the hour-long parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House will be virtual.
This combination of events in the past kept the new president and first lady out of the White House long enough for household personnel to finish fiddling with their clothes, furniture and other personal items.
The pandemic can affect the change process in other ways.
Some public health experts said it was important for the White House to take extra precautions to reduce the spread of airborne disease during the busy move.
The White House was the scene of several coronavirus outbreaks that infected dozens of employees and others, including Trump and his wife, Melania. Biden is at risk because of his age. The 78-year-old man is tested regularly for coronavirus and recently received his final dose of the vaccine.
Linsey Marr, a Virginia Tech engineering professor with experience in aerial transmission of viruses such as the coronavirus, said that government officials and other officials should make sure to wear face covers as they will work hard during the five to six hours it normally takes to finish the movement.
“There will be a lot of people there moving things in and out,” she said. “I would like to make sure that these people are masked, covering their nose and mouth at all times. They will work hard because they will move things. “
Marr also suggested that the Bidens wait a few hours after completing the move to enter the residence.
The White House is usually completely clean among families, said Anita McBride, who, as an assistant to President George W. Bush, helped coordinate his move to the mansion in 2009.
“Everything undergoes massive cleaning,” she said. Beds are removed, mattresses replaced, carpets cleaned or replaced, and new layers of paint are applied as needed.
The main concierge at the White House, who oversees the cleaning team, usually coordinates with someone on the new president’s team to learn about his preferences so that the residence feels as at home as possible, with clothes hanging in the cupboards and favorite foods in the kitchen. .
As soon as the moving trucks that are waiting pass through a strong security system and enter the White House land, the employees of the residence are divided into groups to perform specific tasks. Some will deal only with Trump’s belongings, while others will be tasked with placing the contents of Biden’s boxes in their designated places.
The main porter reports to Melania Trump, who visited White House quarters in November 2016, when he accompanied Donald Trump to the White House for a post-election meeting with then President Barack Obama. President Trump broke the tradition and did not invite the Bidens to a similar meeting.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani of Chicago contributed to this report.