Corny jokes out in tense year
Nostalgia was in and jokes were out yesterday as President Donald Trump offered a reprieve to a pair of meaty turkeys at the traditional Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony at the White House.
The National Turkey Federation presented the White House with two birds, Corn and Cob. Corn was declared the national Thanksgiving turkey, though both will retire to a new home on the campus of Iowa State University. It’s not the first time the typically light-hearted turkey pardon ceremony has taken place in a tense time for the nation.
This time, the ceremony came amid a global pandemic and as Trump refuses to concede he lost his re-election bid. Trump cited the vaccines that could soon receive approval from US regulators.
“We give thanks for the vaccines and therapies that will soon end the pandemic,” Trump said at one point. He did not reference the recent surge in Covid-19 cases.
Trump did not take questions from reporters as he spoke in the Rose Garden to more than 100 staff and guests, the vast majority wearing masks. His tone was more serious than in prior turkey pardon ceremonies.
Trump used last year’s pardon to make jokes about the impeachment process.
In 2018, Trump joked about one of the turkeys contesting the election. George H.W. Bush established the annual turkey pardon tradition in 1989 by sparing a 23kg bird as animal rights activists picketed nearby.