{"id":18946,"date":"2024-11-26T08:45:49","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T08:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18946"},"modified":"2024-11-26T08:45:49","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T08:45:49","slug":"joe-biden-pardons-turkeys-in-final-white-house-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18946","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden pardons turkeys in final White House holiday season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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US President <\/span>Joe Biden<\/span><\/a> and his wife, Jill, have opened their final holiday season at the White House with the annual turkey pardons and Christmas tree arrival before they hosted \u201cfriendsgiving\u201d in New York City for US Coast Guard members and their families.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cSimply put, we owe you. We owe your families,\u201d Biden said at US Coast Guard Sector New York on Staten Island.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThank you, thank you, thank you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President Joe Biden speaks after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey Liberty. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The meal was part of the first lady’s Joining Forces initiative to support military families. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWith all my heart, thank you for your service and your sacrifice,” she said before the president spoke.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Both then tied dark aprons with the presidential seal around their dress clothes and joined the chow line, where they served a side dish of roasted Brussels sprouts.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Celebrity chef Robert Irvine helped with the menu of turkey, ham, side dishes and desserts.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President Joe Biden speaks after pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey, Peach, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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All the people Trump has nominated for his cabinet<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier at the White House, Biden issued the traditional reprieve to turkeys Peach and Blossom who will bypass the Thanksgiving table to live out their days in southern Minnesota.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He welcomed 2500 guests to the South Lawn under sunny skies as he joked about the birds’ fates and sounded wistful about the approaching end of his half-century in Washington power circles.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been the honor of my life. I\u2019m forever grateful,\u201d Biden said of his single term as president.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The reins of power will transfer on January 20 to Republican president-elect <\/span>Donald Trump<\/span><\/a>, the man Biden defeated four years ago and was battling again until he was pressured to bow out of the race amid concerns about his age and viability. Biden is 82.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Biden relished the brief ceremony with the pardoned turkeys named for the official flower of his home state of Delaware.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe peach pie in my state is one of my favorites,\u201d he said during remarks that were occasionally interrupted by Peach gobbling atop a table to Biden’s right.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President Joe Biden stands with chair of the National Turkey Federation John Zimmerman, his son Grant Zimmerman and the national Thanksgiving turkey Peach. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cPeach is making a last-minute plea,\u201d Biden said at one point.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Biden introduced Peach as a bird who \u201clives by the motto, \u2018Keep calm and gobble on.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Blossom, the president said, has a different motto: \u201cNo fowl play. Just Minnesota nice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Peach and Blossom came from the farm of John Zimmerman, near the southern Minnesota city of Northfield.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Zimmerman, who has raised about 4 million turkeys, is president of the National Turkey Federation, which has gifted Thanksgiving turkeys to US presidents since the Truman administration after World War II.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President Harry Truman, however, preferred to eat the birds. Official pardon ceremonies did not become an annual White House tradition until the administration of President George H.W. Bush in 1989.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Turkeys Peach and Blossom before the ceremony. (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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With their presidential reprieve, Peach and Blossom will live out their days at Farmamerica, an agriculture interpretative centre near Waseca in southern Minnesota.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The centre’s aim is to promote agriculture and educate future farmers and others about agriculture in America.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The first lady also received the official White House Christmas tree that will be decorated and put on display in the Blue Room.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 5.64 metres Fraser fir came from a farm in an area of western North Carolina that recently was devastated by Hurricane Helene.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cartner\u2019s Christmas Tree Farm lost thousands of trees in the storm \u201cbut this one remained standing and they named it \u2018Tremendous\u2019 for the extraordinary hope that it represents,\u201d Jill Biden said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Biden began his long goodbye Friday night with a gala in a pavilion erected on the South Lawn for hundreds of friends, supporters, Cabinet secretaries, Democratic donors and long-serving staff members who came to hear from the president and pay tribute \u2014 despite Biden effectively being forced off the Democratic ticket this summer and then watching Vice President Kamala Harris suffer defeat on November 5.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m so proud that we\u2019ve done all of this with a deep belief in the core values of America,\u201d said Biden, sporting a tuxedo for the black-tie event.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Setting aside his criticisms of Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy, Biden added his characteristic national cheerleading: \u201cI fully believe that America is better positioned to lead the world today than at any point in my 50 years of public service.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: <\/em> politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, have opened their final holiday season at the White House with the annual turkey pardons and Christmas tree arrival before they hosted \u201cfriendsgiving\u201d in New York City for US Coast Guard members and their families. \u201cSimply put, we owe you. We owe your families,\u201d Biden said at […]<\/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-18946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946","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=18946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}