WASHINGTON (AP) – Moving from home to home is challenging under the best of circumstances, and even with movers as good as the housekeepers and other staff who work in the White House.
But the coronavirus pandemic could be a complicating factor as the executive mansion gears up for a new president and carries out the inauguration day ritual of moving one leader and settling in another.
It is usually precision surgery: both movements are usually performed in about five hours. The clock would normally start ticking when the outgoing and new president 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 the moving trucks waiting outside the gates of the White House,” said Matt Costello, a historian with the White House Historical Association. “And as soon as the president and president-elect leave, they wave the moving trucks and pack the outgoing president’s belongings, and then they unpack all the stuff of the new first family.”
Biden’s wife, Jill, said on Friday that she and the president-elect had been preparing for the past two months to move from their home in Wilmington, Delaware, and that they were “ packing our closets this morning. ”
But things will turn out a little different this year.
President Donald Trump, still angry about the loss of reelection, skips the inauguration. He also leaves town before Biden takes the oath of office, which means the couple will not go to the Capitol together. Depending on when Trump leaves, housekeepers and other staffers who help move the president’s belongings can get a welcome edge in packing and unpacking.
Inauguration planners have scaled back the traditional series of events this year because of the pandemic, which is now responsible for nearly 400,000 American deaths. A luncheon 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.
That combination of past events kept the new president and first lady out of the White House long enough that the housekeepers had finished moving in their clothes, furniture, and other personal items.
The pandemic could affect the relocation process in other ways.
Some public health experts have said it is important for the White House to take extra precautions to reduce the spread of the largely airborne illness during the busy move.
The White House has been the scene of several coronavirus outbreaks that infect dozens of staffers and others, including Trump and his wife Melania. Biden is in danger because of his age. The 78-year-old is regularly tested for the coronavirus and recently received his last dose of the vaccine.
Linsey Marr, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech with expertise in the transmission of viruses such as the coronavirus through the air, said housekeepers and other staff should make sure to wear face covers as they exert themselves for the five to six hours normally required is to complete the move.
“There will be a lot of people out there moving things in and out,” she said. ‘I would like to make sure that those people are masked so that they cover their noses and mouths at all times. They will make an effort because they are going to move things. “
Marr also suggested that the Bidens wait a few hours after the move is complete to enter the residence.
The White House is normally thoroughly cleaned between families, said Anita McBride, who, as an assistant to President George W. Bush, helped coordinate his move from the mansion in 2009.
“Everything is cleaned thoroughly,” she said. Beds are stripped, mattresses replaced, carpets are cleaned or replaced and new layers of paint are applied if necessary.
The White House headman, who oversees the housekeeping staff, usually coordinates with someone on the president-to-be’s team to learn about their preferences so that the property feels at home as much as possible, with clothes provided in hang the cupboards and favorite foods. in the kitchen.
Once the waiting moving trucks have swung through tight security and into the White House grounds, the residence staff members break into groups to carry out specific assignments. Some will only deal with Trump’s assets, while others will be tasked with placing the contents of Biden’s boxes in the appropriate places.
The head usher reports to Melania Trump, who toured the White House living quarters in November 2016 when she accompanied Donald Trump to the White House for a post-election meeting with then-President Barack Obama. President Trump has broken with tradition and has not invited the Bidens to a similar meeting.
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Aamer Madhani, Associated Press writer in Chicago, contributed to this report.