President Biden pardons turkeys today

Today President Joe Biden will pardon the national Thanksgiving turkey in a ceremony on the south lawn to continue the 75-year tradition. There are two lucky birds — with one serving as an alternate. They’re named “Chocolate” and “Chip”. They’re from North Carolina but made the trip up to Washington, D.C. Over the weekend.

The official “pardoning” of White House turkeys is an interesting White House tradition that has captured the imagination of the public in recent years. It is often stated that President Lincoln’s 1863 clemency to a turkey recorded in an 1865 dispatch by White House reporter Noah Brooks was the origin for the pardoning ceremony.