Biden pardons Thanksgiving turkeys while marking 81st birthday with jokes about his age
- The pardoning tradition dates to 1947 when the National Turkey Federation first presented a National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman
- Biden joked about his age, saying: ‘This is the 76th anniversary of this event. I want you to know I wasn’t there for the first one’
Liberty and Bell can spread their wings without fear. The two Thanksgiving turkeys played their part on Monday in an annual holiday tradition at the White House: a president sparing them from becoming someone’s dinner.
The event, held on the South Lawn this year instead of the smaller Rose Garden, marks the unofficial start of the holiday season in Washington, and Monday was an especially busy opening day.
Biden, the oldest president in US history, also celebrated turning 81 on Monday. In the afternoon, his wife, first lady Jill Biden, was accepting the delivery of an 18.5-ft (5.6-metre) Fraser fir from Fleetwood, North Carolina, as the official White House Christmas tree.
“By the way, it’s my birthday today,” the president said, noting that guests with him in the Oval Office before the event sang Happy Birthday. “I just want you to know, it’s difficult turning 60. Difficult,” Biden joked. “This is the 76th anniversary of this event. I want you to know I wasn’t there for the first one.”
The Democrat’s age has become an issue as he seeks re-election next year.
Steve Lykken, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and president of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, told Associated Press in an interview last week that the pardons are a “great way to kick off the holiday season and really, really a fun honour.”
Lykken introduced Liberty and Bell on Sunday at the Willard Intercontinental, a luxury hotel near the White House. The gobblers checked into a suite there on Saturday following their red-carpet arrival in the US capital after a long drive from Minnesota in a black Cadillac Escalade.
