EDITOR’S NOTE –On Monday night, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will welcome service members and their families to Fort Wadsworth for a Friendsgiving meal at the U.S. Coast Guard Sector New York at the post.
Go here for the most recent coverage, which includes details on the road restrictions on Father Capodanno Boulevard.
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At a ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, President Joe Biden is seen with National Turkey Federation chair John Zimmerman, from left, and Zimmerman’s son Grant following the pardoning of the national Thanksgiving turkey, Peach. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo) APAP
President of Washington,By giving two turkeys the customary respite to spend their remaining days in southern Minnesota rather than at the Thanksgiving table, Joe Biden kicked off his final holiday season at the White House on Monday.
Following a half-century in Washington power circles, the 82-year-old president greeted 2,500 visitors to the South Lawn under sunny skies while making jokes about Peach and Blossom’s fates and sounding nostalgic about the final weeks of his presidency.
It has been my greatest honor. “I will always be grateful,” Biden stated, referring to his departure on January 20, 2025. The Republican president-elect Donald Trump, whom Biden defeated four years ago and was running against again until he was forced to withdraw due to doubts about his age and fitness, will take over at that point.
The president and first lady Jill Biden will continue their hectic schedule of events until Inauguration Day, which will also serve as their farewell. In December, the White House schedule is packed with holiday parties for a variety of audiences, including members of Congress, the White House press corps, and West Wing employees.
Named after the official flower of the president’s home state of Delaware, Biden enjoyed the brief ceremony with the pardoned turkeys.
During his remarks, which were sometimes cut short by a peach munching on the table to Biden’s right, he declared, “One of my favorites is the peach pie in my state.” Biden once remarked, “Peach is making a last-minute plea,” to the amusement of an overflowing audience that included members of the Cabinet, White House employees and their families, as well as children from Future Farmers of America chapters and 4H programs.
Biden presented Peach as a bird that embodies the maxim, “Remain composed and keep eating.” “No fowl play” is Blossom’s alternative motto, the president stated. Nice, just like Minnesota.
John Zimmerman’s farm, close to the city of Northfield in southern Minnesota, is where Peach and Blossom originated. As head of the National Turkey Federation, which has been presenting Thanksgiving turkeys to American presidents since the Truman administration following World War II, Zimmerman has bred almost 4 million turkeys. But President Harry Truman wanted to eat the birds instead.Only under President George H.W. Bush’s administration in 1989 did formal pardon ceremonies become a yearly White House custom.
Peach and Blossom will spend their remaining years at Farmamerica, an agricultural interpretive site in southern Minnesota, close to Waseca, thanks to their presidential reprieve. Promoting agriculture and educating aspiring farmers and others about American agriculture are the center’s goals.
The official White House Christmas tree, which will be on display in the Blue Room, will be delivered to First Lady Jill Biden later Monday. After that, the Bidens will head to New York City for an evening Friendsgiving gathering at a Staten Island Coast Guard station.
Hundreds of Biden’s friends, fans, and staff members gathered in a pavilion set up on the South Lawn, overlooking the Lincoln Memorial, for a gala on Friday night to kick off his farewell calendar.
Despite there being no proof that Biden was successfully removed off the Democratic ticket this summer and that he witnessed Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat on November 5, cabinet secretaries, Democratic fundraisers, and his longest-serving employees gathered to hear from the president and pay their respects.
Wearing a tuxedo for the black-tie affair, Biden declared, “I’m so proud that we’ve done all of this with a deep belief in the core values of America.” Biden added his signature national cheerleading after dismissing his critique of Trump as a fundamental danger to democracy: I firmly believe that America is in a better position to lead the world now than it has ever been in my 50 years in public office.
In the wake of Trump, the first lady hailed her husband, referencing his pledge during the 2020 campaign to rebuild the nation’s soul. However, Biden’s four years are now positioned in the midst of an era that is dominated by Trump’s presence in the White House and on the national stage as a result of the Election Day results.
Younger Democrats like Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and Biden’s Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigiegnot not only raised their glasses to the president but also held forth with many attendees who could stay in the party’s power circles in the 2028 election cycle and beyond, despite the first couple’s avoidance of the context surrounding the president’s impending departure.
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