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Biden Pardoned His Last Pair of Turkeys as President. It Went As You'd Expect.

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 25, 2024 8:45 PM

Earlier on Monday, President Joe Biden pardoned his last pair of turkeys as president. In less than two months, President-elect Donald Trump, who is both Biden's predecessor and his successor, will take office. Biden's performance went pretty much as you'd expect, with Sister Toldjah at our sister site of RedState highlighting how the male turkey being pardoned, Peaches, stole the show, as he was gobbling and ruffling his feathers.

When speaking about the turkeys, Biden predictably fumbled his lines, notably when discussing a popular Minnesota dish, the Tater Tot Hotdish. "According the experts, Peach weighs 41 pounds and loves to eat hotdish and teter to--tator tots, and cross-country skis," Biden said, to laughter and applause.

Doug P, who also covered the remarks for our sister site of Twitchy, referred to the event as "basically another episode of 'Joe vs. Teleprompter,'" and also had a particularly apt note about Tater Tot Hotdish being included in Biden's brief remarks at all. "Anybody who put 'tater tot hotdish' in a teleprompter for Joe was daring him to mess it up," he mentioned.

Biden had spoken about Minnesota throughout his remarks, including in reference to where these turkeys have come from and hope to return to. There was also name drops of many Minnesotans, including Gov. Tim Walz, the state's Democratic governor who was also Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate and looks to have done her no favors by being on this ticket.

After cracking some jokes as he pardoned the turkeys, who kept gobbling in the background, Biden made some more serious remarks. He spoke about how he was "forever grateful" to be president, and he also mentioned his son, Beau, notably his "service and sacrifice." 

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"We also keep in our hearts those who have lost so much, who will have an empty seat at the di--at the Thanksgiving dinner table tonight--or, excuse me, Thursday night," Biden fumbled, though he caught himself when he mixed up the day of this week that Thanksgiving falls on.

Pardoning turkeys is a tradition that goes back 77 years, though President George H.W. Bush was the one who added the part about "pardon" to this tradition in 1989. The term "pardon" takes on a deeper meaning this year, though, when it comes to First Son Hunter Biden, as many highlighted over X. 

The president has claimed he won't pardon his son, while White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn't speak to the issue when asked earlier this month, though Trump has mentioned he's open to it when he was asked shortly before he won the 2024 presidential election.