Michael LaRosa, an aide to former first lady Jill Biden, called the demolition of the White House’s East Wing “sad” but said it was “probably needed.”
“It’s sad. I had a really wonderful office that I squatted in an hour or two after the inauguration ended, and remained there for nearly two years,” LaRosa, who served as Biden’s press secretary, said Friday during an appearance on “Sunrise on The Hill.”
“It’s heartbreaking and I’m sentimental about it and sad,” he said. “At the same time, I think every first family, every president should play a role in evolving the White House and updating it and modernizing it and sometimes expanding it.”
“I don’t think there’s any question that a ballroom is probably needed,” he added. “But I understand the sadness around the East Wing because I feel it myself.”
LaRosa pointed to past presidents’ modifications to the White House, including Harry Truman’s changes to the White House’s interior and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s additions to the West Wing.
Arguments that the president didn’t need to tear down the White House’s East Wing to build a ballroom, according to LaRosa, “beats the purpose of the opportunity a lot of first presidents and ladies are given and afforded by sending them to the White House.”
The demolition of the White House’s East Wing began on Monday and was completed by Thursday. The wing was razed in order to create a ballroom, a move that has drawn criticism from politicians and preservationists.
Both the cost of the ballroom and the decision to raze the East Wing in its entirety have been heavily scrutinized. Trump originally estimated that the construction of the ballroom would cost $200 million, a sum that has climbed to $300 million. He also previously said the East Wing would not be entirely demolished.
The White House called the ballroom “a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations” in a Tuesday press release.
The release also criticized “unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies” for “clutching their pearls” over the modifications, calling it the “latest instance of manufactured outrage.”
