--- 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: 2026-02-23T01:59:04.734Z 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 23, 2016 5:01 PM UTC  President Obama at The White House on Nov.10, 2016. President Obama at The White House on Nov.10, 2016.Leigh Vogel—Getty Images 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4581643/president-obama-turkey-pardon-watch-live/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4581643/president-obama-turkey-pardon-watch-live/"},"headline":"Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey","datePublished":"2016-11-23T17:01:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:59:04.734Z","description":"Last year, he pardoned two twin male turkeys named Honest and Abe","url":"https://time.com/4581643/president-obama-turkey-pardon-watch-live/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da8bf800a670372/6988afa4cf40a809e1c45adf/obama12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da8bf800a670372/6988afa4cf40a809e1c45adf/obama12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 NBA Champions Cleveland Cavaliers Visit The White House","caption":"2016 NBA Champions Cleveland Cavaliers Visit The White House","creditText":"Leigh Vogel—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/4581643/president-obama-turkey-pardon-watch-live/","name":"Watch President Obama Pardon His Final Thanksgiving Turkey"}}]}] ```