Politics

Watch: President Trump pardons Thanksgiving turkey at annual White House ceremony

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President Donald Trump leads the nation's annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony.

This year, the two turkeys hoping to be spared from the Thanksgiving dinner table are named Bread and Butter.

The turkeys had been gobbling it up in a Washington D.C. suite while awaiting Tuesday's time-honored tradition.

Ahead of the event, the White House asked in a Twitter poll which turkey, Bread or Butter, should be pardoned, and gave each a mini profile.

White House poll

Butter + Bread profiles

Abraham Lincoln is on record as the first president to have pardoned a turkey in 1863, having spared the bird's life after his son, Tad, protested against it becoming the family's Christmas dinner.

Other administrations loosely continued the tradition, but George H.W. Bush formalized the practice in 1989.

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