Trump says Biden turkey pardons were “totally invalid” at annual pre-Thanksgiving ceremony
President Donald Trump carried out the presidential tradition of pardoning two turkeys on Tuesday, but not before getting a crack in at his predecessor.
Trump said that turkeys that were spared from the annual feast by former President Joe Biden could still face the processing plant, reviving his theory that many of Biden’s pardons were void because of the use of a signature duplicator called an “autopen.”
“He used an autopen last year for the turkeys’ pardon, so I have the official duty to determine, and I have determined last year’s turkey pardons are totally invalid,” Trump said, before extending his clemency to Biden’s turkeys retroactively. “The turkeys known as Peach and Blossom last year have been located, and they were on their way to be processed, in other words, to be killed. But I’ve stopped that journey, and I am officially pardoning them. And they will not be served for Thanksgiving dinner. We saved them in the nick of time.”
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Trump went on to say that nearly all of the pardons Biden issued on his way out of the White House were “invalid.”
“Hunter [Biden]’s was good. That was the one pardon,” he said. “The rest of them are all invalid. I don’t know what the hell you’re going to do about that.”
Trump has repeatedly raged against Biden’s alleged use of a signature duplicator to sign official orders. When he installed a wall of presidential portraits in the White House earlier this year, Trump used a photo of the machine for Biden in place of an official portrait.
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