As President Donald Trump pardoned two turkeys, Gobble and Waddle, on Tuesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, he couldn’t resist taking a shot at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and his liberal use of the autopen while in office.
“He used an autopen last year for the turkey’s pardon,” Trump said of Biden. “So I have the official duty to determine, and I have determined, that last year’s Turkey pardons are totally invalid, as are the pardons of about every other person that was pardoned, other than, where’s Hunter?”
The president was alluding to the former president’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, before he left office. The younger Biden pleaded guilty to tax charges and was found guilty of being an illegal drug user in possession of a gun last year.
Trump claimed that a Justice Department investigation of Biden declared that the use of an autopen nullified the turkey pardons.
“They’re hereby null and void. The turkeys known as Peach and Blossom last year have been located, and they were on their way to be processed, in other words, to be killed,” Trump said of last year’s turkey pardons. “But I have stopped that journey, and I am officially pardoning them, and they will not be served for Thanksgiving dinner. We saved them in the nick of time.”
Trump eventually pardoned Gobble and Waddle during the Tuesday ceremony in the Rose Garden. “Waddle, by the way, is missing in action, but that’s OK. We’ll pretend Waddle is here,” Trump said.
“I just want to tell you this very important: you are hereby unconditionally [pardoned],” Trump said to Gobble.
The president joked that he wanted to name the two turkeys after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), but changed his mind.
“I was gonna call them Chuck and Nancy. But then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them,” he said. “I would never pardon those two people. I wouldn’t pardon them, I wouldn’t care what [first lady Melania Trump] told me. ‘Darling. I think it would be a nice thing to do.’ I won’t do it, darling.”
The two turkeys were raised in North Carolina under the direction of National Turkey Federation Chairman Jay Jandrain and Butterball contract grower Travis Pittman of Nahunta, according to the White House.
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Gobble and Waddle spent the night at The Willard InterContinental Hotel and will return to the Tar Heel State later on Tuesday. They will spend the rest of their lives under the care of the Prestage Department of Poultry Science at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Waddle visited the briefing room earlier this morning, where he posed for photos with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and her son.
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