Lame and Biden Pardon Thanksgiving Turkeys While the World Burns | Joe Biden

That’s the way the Biden world ends. Not with a bang, but a sip.

Joe Biden, 82, once the defender of democracy and the savior of America’s soul, is headed for the door, trading the nuclear codes for golf clubs and beach chairs. Power is as fickle as fame.

But on a crisp, sunny Monday, he clinched a final victory over old rival Donald Trump by drawing what must have been the largest crowd ever seen annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon. And he knows how obsessed Trump is with crowd sizes.

“They tell me there are 2,500 people here today,” Biden saidstanding at the president’s lectern on the south lawn, hooting, “looking for a pardon.”

He laughed and so did the crowd. As a dejected Trump held this event at the end of his own presidency in 2020, questions such as “Mr. President, will you pardon yourself?” were shouted. Biden has ruled out a last-minute pardon for his son, Hunter, convicted on federal gun charges.

But a scoundrel with a dark sense of humor could have named this year’s turkeys Nancy and Barack after the two Democrats who precipitated the president’s exit from the campaign following his disastrous televised debate against Trump.

Instead, the two white-feathered birds, raised in Minnesota, were called Peach and flowernamed after the official state flower of Biden’s home state of Delaware.

Wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses, Biden, marking his final holiday season in the White House, couldn’t help but note, “And by the way, Delaware has a long history of growing peaches. In fact peach pie in our state is one of my favorite. It is a state dessert!”

He added: “Peach blossom also symbolizes resilience, which is frankly appropriate for today.”

It was apparently a comment on the ingenuity of turkeys to avoid the Thanksgiving dinner table. Some might also have detected a poignant acknowledgment that even Biden was talking turkey, a man his allies labeled a fascist is down at Mar-a-Lago preparing to hammer America’s democratic institutions again.

George HW Bush made it an annual tradition to formally pardon a Thanksgiving turkey, though tales of the birds being spared from dinner tables date back to Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. Biden recalled that for the past four years, he has continued the tradition of pardoning peanut butter and jelly, chocolate and chips, and Liberty and Bell. “And today Peach and Blossom will join the free birds of the United States.”

As he continued, Peach could be heard babbling. “Yeah, I hear you,” Biden said as the crowd laughed. “Peach would like to talk a little here.”

Peach weighs 41 pounds, loves to eat hot food, enjoys cross-country skiing, dreams of seeing the Northern Lights and lives by the motto, “Keep calm and swallow,” the president said. Blossom weighs 40 pounds, loves to eat curds and watch boxing, dreams of visiting each of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes, and lives by the motto: “No fowl play, just Minnesota nice.”

The turkeys had traveled 1,100 miles over 16 and a half hours listening to their favorite music, including the song Living on a prayer. Biden added, “Well, guys, your prayer will be answered today. Based on your temperament and your commitment to being productive members of society, I hereby pardon Peach and Blossom.”

And then the lame duck spared the turkeys.

As is customary, Biden then promised to close on a more serious note. He acknowledged it would be his last time speaking here as president this season. So let me tell you: It has been the honor of my life. I am eternally grateful.”

There were characteristic reflections on those who have lost loved ones, the importance of family and how America is the greatest country on earth. “And that’s not hyperbole,” he added, as if anticipating dissent. “We are.

“No matter what, we never give up in America. We keep going. We keep the faith. We just have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.”

It’s a line Biden often uses at the end of his speeches. But on Monday, it sounded like a plea from a man whose legacy is in jeopardy. With Trump’s promise of mass deportations, purging of the federal bureaucracy, and “America first” isolationism, a presidency that once seemed so consequential risks fading fast.

Despite the large crowd, Biden’s turkey farewell felt more subdued than Barack Obama’s, who, despite knowing Trump was on his way, managed to remain cheerful with “a corny copy of dad jokes about turkeys.” Obama seemed happy that day; Biden as a man in denial.

Peach and Blossom will now head to an agricultural center in Minnesota to help promote the state and educate future farmers. Riding off into his own sunset, Biden may find retirement brings far less peace.