The oldest President in U.S. history is celebrating his 81st birthday today, in part by pardoning two Thanksgiving turkeys at the White House.
Liberty and Bell, the two lucky male turkeys, are about 20 weeks old and hail from Willmar, Minnesota. The two arrived on Saturday at the Willard Intercontinental, a luxury hotel close to the White House. The gobblers checked into a suite there on Saturday, and were escorted in a black Cadillac Escalade.
“They listened to all kinds of music to get ready for the crowds and people along the way. I can confirm they are, in fact, Swifties, and they do enjoy some Prince,” according to the President of Jennie-O Turkey Store. “I think they’re absolutely ready for prime time.”
Later on Monday afternoon, FLOTUS Jill Biden will receive the official White House Christmas tree from Fleetwood, N.C.
Biden will celebrate Thanksgiving with family on Nantucket Island on Thursday, and helped serve an early Thanksgiving meal to naval members and families at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia on Sunday.
The event featured around 400 service members and their relatives seated in folding chairs and around wooden, circular tables inside a concrete-floored hanger that included three display Blackhawk helicopters, a towering American flag and a screen with the image of the White House surrounded by falling leaves and the words “Happy Thanksgiving.”
“I mean from the bottom of my heart,” the president said. “Family members, you are the heart of this operation.” He said he would be passing out dressing and joked, “If you don’t like dressing, just come up and pretend you do and say hi to me.’’
AP
The President was presented with a birthday cake at the end of the event.