--- title: President Obama Pardons Last Thanksgiving Turkey description: President Barack Obama pardoned the last Thanksgiving turkey of his presidential term, granting freedom to Tot and his "vice-turkey," Tater canonical: https://time.com/4581781/president-obama-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-23T20:43:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:59:10.868Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Pardons Turkeys Tater and Tot for Thanksgiving og:description: But he plans to continue making turkey-themed jokes for Sasha and Malia og:url: https://time.com/4581781/president-obama-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Pardons Turkeys Tater and Tot for Thanksgiving twitter:description: But he plans to continue making turkey-themed jokes for Sasha and Malia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Pardons Turkeys Tater and Tot for Final White House Thanksgiving  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 23, 2016 8:43 PM UTC  President Barack Obama (R) pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey, 'Tot,' with his nephews Aaron and Austin Robinson in a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House on Nov. 23, 2016 in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama (R) pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey, 'Tot,' with his nephews Aaron and Austin Robinson in a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House on Nov. 23, 2016 in Washington, D.C.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 23, 2016 8:43 PM UTC President Barack Obama [pardoned the last Thanksgiving turkey](http://time.com/4581643/president-obama-turkey-pardon-watch-live/) of his presidential term, [granting freedom](http://time.com/4575217/presidential-turkey-pardon/) to Tot and his “vice-turkey,” Tater. “It is my great privilege, well it’s my privilege—actually, let’s just say it’s my job—to grant them clemency this afternoon,” Obama said. “As I do, I want to take a moment to recognize the brave turkeys who weren’t so lucky, who didn’t get to ride the gravy train to freedom, who met their fate with courage and sacrifice and proved that they weren’t chicken,” he continued, as a young child cried in the background. “It’s not that bad now, c’mon,” Obama joked. The President was joined by his two nephews, [instead of his daughters](http://time.com/4127536/live-president-obama-pardons-a-turkey/), Malia and Sasha. “This year, they had a scheduling conflict. Actually, they just couldn’t take my jokes anymore,” Obama said. “Malia and Sasha are thankful, by the way, that this is my final presidential turkey pardon. What I haven’t told them yet is that we are going to do this every year from now on. No cameras, just us. Every year. No way I’m cutting this habit cold turkey.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4581781/president-obama-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4581781/president-obama-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon/"},"headline":"President Obama Pardons Turkeys Tater and Tot for Final White House Thanksgiving","datePublished":"2016-11-23T20:43:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:59:10.868Z","description":"But he plans to continue making turkey-themed jokes for Sasha and Malia","url":"https://time.com/4581781/president-obama-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey","caption":"President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4581781/president-obama-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon/","name":"President Obama Pardons Turkeys Tater and Tot for Final White House Thanksgiving"}}]}] ```