Biden grants final pardons to turkeys at the White House

President Biden took to the South Lawn of the White House Monday using his lame duck status to spare a flock of fowl from the chopping block this holiday season. Deema Zein reports.
William Brangham:
President Biden took to the South Lawn today, using his lame-duck status to spare a flock of fowl from the chopping block this holiday season.
Deema Zein has the report.
Deema Zein:
For the fourth year in a row, President Joe Biden marked the start of the holiday season by carving out some time to make sure two Turkeys won’t be on the menu this Thanksgiving.
Joe Biden, President of the United States: I hereby pardon Peach and Blossom. Keep calm and gobble on.
(Laughter)
Deema Zein:
The president took a more reflective tone at today’s turkey pardon event than in past years.
Joe Biden:
This event marks the official start of the holiday season here in Washington. It’s also my last time to speak here as your president during this season and give thanks and gratitude. So, let me say to you, it’s been the honor of my life. I’m forever grateful.
Deema Zein:
Biden used the moment to represent his home state of Delaware, naming the pardon birds after the state flower, a peach blossom.
For more than three decades, turkeys have gobbled up attention at the White House, rather than the dinner table. But how it got started, well, that debate has ruffled some feathers.
Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States: President Truman was the first president to pardon a turkey.
Deema Zein:
Actually, Truman was the first president to receive a turkey from the National Turkey Federation, but there’s no record of a pardon.
According to the White House Historical Association, Truman said that the birds would come in handy for Christmas dinner. So, who was the first president to pardon a turkey? Technically, it was Honest Abe Lincoln, after his young son Tad begged to save the life of a bird originally destined to become Christmas dinner.
Jack the turkey instead became a White House pet. President John F. Kennedy was the first to spare a Thanksgiving gobbler. In 1963, despite a sign hanging around the turkey’s neck that read, “Good eating, Mr. President,” Kennedy sent them back to the farm.
And a year before Richard Nixon received a pardon of his own, his daughter chose to gift his turkey to a local petting zoo. It was Ronald Reagan who carved out a spot in history as the first to use the word pardon when talking turkey in 1987.
The tradition became formalized two years later by President George H. W. Bush.
George H.W. Bush, Former President of the United States: Let me assure you and this fine tom turkey that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy.
Deema Zein:
The event is now an annual White House ritual, and for the past decade, the turkeys have been able to experience a treat as sweet as pie, a stay at the 4-starred Willard Hotel, instead of making it to the dinner table.
And from here, Peach and Blossom will head back to Minnesota. That’s where they will live out their days as agricultural ambassadors for Minnesota’s Agricultural Interpretive Center, says John Zimmerman, chairman of the National Turkey Federation, who talked to us with his son, Grant.
John Zimmerman, Chairman, National Turkey Federation:
They have a very nice campus and some facilities where they will be able to house these birds in comfort, feed and take care of them, but they will also be available to school trips and then the general population to come visit with the birds and hopefully learn a little bit more about turkey farming and agriculture in general.
Deema Zein:
But before they were pardoned and headed on their next adventure, we got a chance to meet them close and even catch them in an interview.
How do you feel about being the top two out of 40 pardoned?
(Turkey Gobbles)
Deema Zein:
They were talking turkey to me.
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Deema Zein.
William Brangham:
Keep on and gobble on.
(Laughter)