A day after saying that Turkey had a right to defend its air space, US president Barack Obama offered an olive branch to another turkey, pardoning a bird named Abe in the annual Thanksgiving turkey-pardoning.
Standing next to his daughters Sasha and Malia in the White House Rose Garden, Obama declared that the lucky California-raised turkey had won a public poll to be pardoned, and named the 18-week-old, 40-pound bird “Totus - Turkey of the United States”.
Abe topped the poll ahead of Honest, but he too will be spared from ending up on a Thanksgiving dinner table.
Obama said that the turkey would live in an undisclosed location, ready to serve as “Totus in the Totus line of succession”, which drew an approving gobble from Abe.
The president used the traditional ceremony, now in its 68th year, to poke fun and make jokes next to his daughters.
“As you may have heard, for months there has been a fierce competition between a bunch of turkeys trying to win their way into the White House,” said Obama, in reference to another polling contest that has, on occasion, turned foul and led to feathers flying.
Obama family
The president also thanked his daughters for standing with him during the annual turkey pardon every year.
“They do this solely because it makes me feel good, not because they actually think that this is something that I should be doing,” he said.
In the penultimate year of his presidency, Obama remarked that it was “hard to believe that this is my seventh year of pardoning a turkey”.
“Time flies, even if turkeys don’t,” he said, drawing laughs from the gathered audience of invited guests.
Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, to mark the date in 1621 when the pilgrims, the early settlers of Plymouth Colony, held a feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest.
In 1863, president Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as America’s national day of thanksgiving.
