Hello,
Thank you so much, Eric and Mads! Both your recommendations were very helpful. I did try After Effects to remove the object but the result was wonky. Thus, I took a clean shot and used the clone tool in Photoshop to remove the object. It works mostly fine. What I plan to do is to make the first few seconds of the clip really fast so that it tricks the eye and one cannot see the imperfections. Thanks so much again!