WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden began his final holiday season in the White House on Monday by granting the traditional reprieve to two turkeys who will bypass the Thanksgiving table to spend their days in southern Minnesota.
The 82-year-old president welcomed 2,500 guests to the South Lawn under sunny skies as he joked about the fate of “Peach” and “Blossom” and sounded wistful notes about the final weeks of his presidency after a half-century in Washington. circles of power.
‘It has been the honor of my life. I am eternally grateful,” Biden said, noting his impending departure on January 20, 2025. That is when power will be transferred to newly elected Republican President Donald Trump, the man who defeated Biden four years ago and fought again until he was pressured to drop out of the race due to concerns about his age and viability.
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Biden enjoyed the brief ceremony with the pardoned turkeys, named after the official flower of the president’s home state of Delaware.
“The peach pie in my state is one of my favorites,” he said during remarks occasionally interrupted by Peach gobbling up the table to Biden’s right. “Peach is making a last-minute plea,” Biden said at one point, drawing laughter from a packed crowd that included Cabinet members, White House staff and their families, and students from 4H programs and Future chapters Farmers of America.
Biden introduced Peach as a bird who “lives by the motto: ‘Keep calm and gobble.’” Blossom, the president said, has a different motto: “No poultry. Just Minnesota fun.”
Peach and Blossom came from John Zimmerman’s farm, near the town of Northfield in southern Minnesota. Zimmerman, who has raised about 4 million turkeys, is chairman of the National Turkey Federation, the group that has given Thanksgiving turkeys to U.S. presidents since the Truman administration after World War II. However, President Harry Truman preferred to eat the birds. Official pardon ceremonies did not become an annual tradition at the White House until President George HW Bush’s administration in 1989.
With their presidential reprieve, Peach and Blossom will spend their days at Farmamerica, an agricultural interpretation center near Waseca in southern Minnesota. The center’s purpose is to promote agriculture and educate future farmers and others about agriculture in America.
Later Monday, first lady Jill Biden will receive the official White House Christmas tree, which will be on display in the Blue Room. Then the Bidens will travel to New York City for an evening “Friendsgiving” event at a Coast Guard station on Staten Island.
___ Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville in Washington and Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed.
