Tracing the Origins and Significance of the Presidential Turkey Pardon Transcript

One thing Americans can be thankful for, as inflation cools, so are the prices of Thanksgiving turkeys. Turkey prices are down 5.6% Since last year. That’s according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. But two special turkeys will be spared from the dinner table this week as part of a treasured White House tradition. Laura Barrón-López has more.

I hereby pardon Liberty and Bell.

The two birds, Liberty and Bell, were raised in Minnesota, the nation’s largest producer of turkey.

They love Honeycrisp apples. Not bad, huh? Ice hockey, I’d sure as hell like to see them play ice hockey, Thousand Lakes, and the Mall of America.

The President, on his eighty-first birthday, also made a few dad jokes.

I just want you to know it’s difficult turning 60.

For more than three decades turkeys have gobbled up attention at the White House rather than the dinner table. But how it got started, well, that debate has ruffled some feathers.

President Truman was the first president to pardon a turkey.

Actually, Truman was the first president to receive a turkey from the National Turkey Federation, but there’s no record of a pardon. According to the White House Historical Association, Truman said that the bird would come in handy for Christmas dinner. So who was the first president to pardon a turkey?

(01:31)
Technically it was honest Abe Lincoln, after his young son, Tad begged to save the life of a bird originally destined to become Christmas dinner. Jack the Turkey instead became a White House pet.

(01:44)
President John F. Kennedy was the first to spare a Thanksgiving gobbler. In 1963, despite a sign hanging around the turkey’s neck that read, “Good eating, Mr. President,” Kennedy sent them back to the farm.

(01:57)
And a year before Richard Nixon received a pardon of his own, his daughter chose to gift his Turkey to a local petting zoo. It was Ronald Reagan who carved out a spot in history as the first to use the word, “Pardon,” when talking Turkey in 1987. The tradition became formalized two years later by President George H.W. Bush.

Let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy.

The event is now an annual White House ritual, and for the last decade, the turkeys have received a treat that’s as sweet as pie, a stay at the four-star Willard Hotel. Instead of moving to the dinner table, Liberty and Bell will live out the rest of their lives trotting around the University of Minnesota’s campus farm in St. Paul.

(02:45)
For the PBS NewsHour, I’m Laura Barrón-López.

So these two turkeys apparently are going to head to the University of Minnesota College of Food and Agriculture to rest their feathers for a bit.

I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite pieces we do every year. It just is. Thank you to Laura for that.