--- title: President Obama Pardons His Final Thanksgiving Turkey: Watch description: President Barack Obama will pardon at least one turkey before Thanksgiving—his last time participating in the long-held tradition. canonical: https://time.com/4581643/president-obama-turkey-pardon-watch-live/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-23T17:01:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:54:57.955Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey og:description: Last year, he pardoned two twin male turkeys named Honest and Abe og:url: https://time.com/4581643/president-obama-turkey-pardon-watch-live/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da8bf800a670372/6988afa4cf40a809e1c45adf/obama12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 2016 NBA Champions Cleveland Cavaliers Visit The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey twitter:description: Last year, he pardoned two twin male turkeys named Honest and Abe twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da8bf800a670372/6988afa4cf40a809e1c45adf/obama12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2397a1b2-2bc4-4660-94ba-6778aec97aa5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey [Watch (HLS stream): Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZympRIMY.m3u8) (2:13)  _Published 2016-11-23. Last year, he pardoned two twin male turkeys named Honest and Abe_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 23, 2016 5:01 PM UTC Last year, he pardoned two twin male turkeys named Honest and Abe by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 23, 2016 5:01 PM UTC President Barack Obama on Wednesday will [pardon at least one turkey](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/11/22/president-obama-final-turkey-pardon) before Thanksgiving—his last time participating in the [long-held White House tradition](http://time.com/4575217/presidential-turkey-pardon/) before his term is over. The annual presidential turkey pardon has been going on since 1947\. This year’s official pardoning ceremony is slated to begin Wednesday at about 2:45 p.m. ET. Obama plans to designate one turkey as the National Thanksgiving Turkey and then send the two birds to Virginia Tech, where they will carry out the rest of their lives. [Last year](http://time.com/4127536/live-president-obama-pardons-a-turkey/), Obama pardoned two twin male turkeys named Honest and Abe. ## Transcript [00:00] Of course thanksgiving is a family Holiday as much as a [00:02] national ones. So, for the past seven years, I've [00:05] established another tradition, embarrassing my [00:08] daughters with a cornucopia of their [00:12] jokes about About turkeys. [ LAUGH ] [00:15] This year, they had a scheduling conflict. [ LAUGH ] [00:20] Malia and Sasha by the way are thankful that this is my [00:23] final presidential turkey pardon, what I haven't told [00:26] them yet is that we are gonna do this every year from [00:29] now on. [ LAUGH ] [00:31] No cameras, just us, every year. [ LAUGH ] No way I'm [00:35] cutting this habit cold turkey. [ APPLAUSE ] [00:39] Thanksgiving is a chance, [ LAUGH ] To gather with [00:44] loved ones, reflect on our many blessings and after a [00:47] long campaign season finally turn our attention from [00:50] polls to poultry [ LAUGH ] This year, we're honored to [00:54] be joined by two of the lucky ones, who were raised by [00:57] the Domino family in Iowa, Tater and Tot. [ APPLAUSE ] [01:02] [ SOUND ] [ LAUGH ] Now, Tater is here in a [01:06] backup role just in case Tot can't fulfill his duties. [01:10] [ LAUGH ] So he's sort of like the vice turkey. And [01:14] it is my great privilege, well it's my privilege. Actually [01:19] let's just say it's my job- [ LAUGH ] To grant them [01:21] clemency this afternoon. As I do, I wanna [01:26] take a moment to recognize the brave turkeys who [01:29] weren't so lucky, who didn't get to ride the gravy train [01:32] to freedom. [ LAUGH ] Who met their fate With [01:37] courage and sacrifice and proved that they weren't [01:41] chicken. [ LAUGH ] It's not that bad now [01:46] come on. [ LAUGH ] Todd [01:50] I hereby pardon you from the Thanksgiving table, [01:56] and we hope that you have a wonderful time Gobbler's [01:57] rest. That was good. Okay. What do you think? Wanna [01:57] try it? What are ya thinking? No? [ LAUGH ] Come on, [01:58] come on, come [02:02] on. Feathers are kinda soft. 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