According to Business Insider, the US government will spend almost $500,000 on a deep clean of the White House before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20, CNN reported, citing government contracts it had viewed.
The building has been the center of three COVID-19 outbreaks.
A deep clean between administrations is expected. A deep clean between presidents is usually carried out by White House staff in the six-hour slot when both the incoming and outgoing presidents are at the inauguration ceremony, but this time it’s different.
The incoming administration is contracting extra companies to help at this scale is unprecedented in modern times, presidential historian Kate Brower Andersen told ABC.
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“There’s always been a deep clean between administrations, but we’ve never seen anything like this,” Brower told ABC News’ “Powerhouse Politics” podcast.
The White House has 132 rooms spread over six stories. This includes 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, and 28 fireplaces.
Why the deep cleaning?
Americans have witnessed Donald Trump’s disregard of the COVID-19 coronavirus and the initial methods to prevent it. He went on to try and discredit his own coronavirus advisor Anthony Fauci, while his cabinet has refused to wear masks at the White House, and there have been multiple White House outbreaks over the past year.
More than 130 individuals serving across his Secret Service detail have fallen ill, not to mention the president himself.
As it turns out, Biden took more precautions than most presidents, and budgeted more than $100,000 to
