{"id":18813,"date":"2024-11-25T16:42:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T16:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18813"},"modified":"2024-11-25T16:42:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T16:42:39","slug":"watch-biden-to-continue-white-house-turkey-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18813","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Biden to continue White House turkey tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Peach and Blossom are the two lucky turkeys from Minnesota who will escape a fowl fate of ending up on someone&#8217;s Thanksgiving table this year when they are pardoned Monday by President Biden at the White House.<\/p>\n<div id=\"Entry-content\">\n<div class=\"Before-content\">\n                        <center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p2A5uGKSkdQ?si=HL93a5eY3U7EKgEN\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><strong><em>Watch Biden takes part in the longstanding Thanksgiving tradition.<\/em><\/strong>\n                    <\/div>\n<p>(WASHINGTON) \u2014 Peach and Blossom are the two lucky turkeys from Minnesota who will escape a fowl fate of ending up on someone\u2019s Thanksgiving table this year when they are pardoned Monday by President Biden at the White House.<\/p>\n<p>These birds were plucked for the presidential flock and went through rigorous training to ride the gravy train to the White House for the honor, according to John Zimmerman, chairman of the National Turkey Federation.<\/p>\n<p>Zimmerman\u2019s 9-year-old son Grant and other young trainers made sure their feathers wouldn\u2019t be ruffled by the spotlight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPreparing these presidential birds has taken a lot of special care,\u201d Zimmerman said Sunday during a press conference introducing the two turkeys.\u201cWe\u2019ve been getting them used to lights, camera and even introducing them to a wide variety of music \u2014 everything from polka to classic rock.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peach and Blossom, weighing 41 and 40 pounds, respectively, were hatched back in July. They traveled to Washington this week and were treated to a suite at the Willard InterContinental hotel before their big day on Monday, as is tradition.<\/p>\n<p>After their pardon, the two turkeys will head back to Waseca, Minn., to live out the remainder of the feathery lives as \u201cagricultural ambassadors\u201d at Farmamerica, an agricultural interpretive center.<\/p>\n<p>Previous poultry pardoned under Biden include Liberty and Bell in 2023, Chocolate and Chip in 2022, and Peanut Butter and Jelly in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The turkey pardon at the White House is an annual tradition that is usually \u201ccranned\u201d full of a cornucopia of corny jokes. This year\u2019s pardon will be the last of Biden\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The history of the turkey pardon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The origin of the presidential turkey pardons is a bit fuzzy. Unofficially, reports point all the way back to Abraham Lincoln, who spared a bird from its demise at the urging of his son, Tad. However, that story might be more folklore than fact.<\/p>\n<p>The true start of what has evolved into the current tradition has its roots in politics and dates back to the Harry Truman presidency in 1947.<\/p>\n<p>Truman ruffled feathers by starting \u201cpoultry-less Thursdays\u201d to try and conserve various foods in the aftermath of World War II, but Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year\u2019s Day all fell on Thursdays.<\/p>\n<p>After the White House was inundated with live birds sent as part of a \u201cHens for Harry\u201d counter-initiative, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board presented Truman with a bird as a peace offering \u2014 although the turkey was not saved from a holiday feast.<\/p>\n<p>President John F. Kennedy began the trend of publicly sparing a turkey given to the White House in November 1963, just days before his assassination. In the years following, the event became a bit more sporadic, with even some first ladies such as Pat Nixon and Rosalynn Carter stepping in to accept the guests of honor on their husband\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n<p>The tradition of the public sparing returned in earnest during the Reagan administration, but the official tradition of the poultry pardoning at the White House started in 1989, when then-President George H.W. Bush offered the first official presidential pardon. In the more than three decades since, at least one lucky bird has gotten some extra gobbles each year.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 20px;\">\n<p><em>Source: <\/em> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/politics.einnews.com\/article\/763622210\/AylhOQWMn0BP7YqP?ref=rss&amp;ecode=kmfm9fDbRbj4OPCJ\">politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peach and Blossom are the two lucky turkeys from Minnesota who will escape a fowl fate of ending up on someone&#8217;s Thanksgiving table this year when they are pardoned Monday by President Biden at the White House. Watch Biden takes part in the longstanding Thanksgiving tradition. (WASHINGTON) \u2014 Peach and Blossom are the two lucky [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}