Liberty has come to the White House seeking justice.
President Joe Biden is set to preside over the annual White House Thanksgiving tradition of the turkey pardon Monday, sparing Liberty, a 42.5-pound turkey, and Bell, 42.1 pounds, in a brief respite from the global crises facing his administration.
Liberty and Bell will be roasted – but only metaphorically – by the president on the South Lawn of the White House. The yearly occasion is an opportunity for a cornucopia of fowl jokes – and to give thanks as the holiday season begins.
As Americans gather around their Thanksgiving tables this year, the price of the average meal is down from a historic high, signaling some relief from rampant inflation. The average cost of the feast is down approximately 4.5% compared with last year, according to the American Farm Bureau’s annual survey, giving the White House some good news to squawk about.
Rumors of turkey pardons go back in presidential history as far as the Abraham Lincoln administration. Folklore has it that Lincoln’s young son asked his father to spare a pet turkey that was supposed to be part of their Thanksgiving dinner.
The competition of the delivery became national news in the 1920s, when a turkey from Texas sent to Woodrow Wilson in a White House-shaped crate battled outside the White House with a turkey from Kentucky. The Kentucky bird emerged victorious, according to the White House Historical Association.
The National Turkey Foundation became the official turkey supplier to the first family in 1947, and the formal turkey presentation ceremony has been around since Harry Truman. Truman was the first to accept a turkey from the group – however, he did not spare it.
The first documented turkey pardon was given by John F. Kennedy in 1963, though it didn’t catch on right away. Even though Gerald Ford pardoned Richard…
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