The traditional pre-Thanksgiving turkey pardon is a rare apolitical event at the White House. Nevertheless, reporters couldn’t resist jibing President Donald Trump, with one asking if he’d be issuing a similar one to himself.
A tradition dating back to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey was made an annual event by President George H.W. Bush in 1989. Trump carried on the tradition as usual on Tuesday, bestowing a pardon on a turkey named Corn, and remarking that "Thanksgiving is a special day for turkeys... for the most part not a very good one, when you think about it."
However, as Trump walked back into the White House after the ceremony, a jeering reporter, apparently CNN’s Jim Acosta, shouted after the president: “Will you be issuing a pardon for yourself?”
Trump has not been convicted of any crimes. However, with rumors circulating about potential investigations into Trump after he leaves office, news outlets have begun to speculate whether the president will preemptively pardon himself, or step down at the eleventh hour and have Vice President Mike Pence issue the pardon instead.
Trump has insisted that he will not be leaving office in January, and that his campaign will fight Joe Biden’s apparent election win all the way to the Supreme Court. However, Biden has pressed ahead with his transition, and nearly every mainstream media outlet has taken to calling him the “president-elect.”
Should Trump’s legal efforts fail and Biden be inaugurated in January, Acosta will likely return to reporting as usual, rather than heckling the president.
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