Every year, the Monday before Thanksgiving, the President of the United States pardons two turkeys which cannot be eaten that holiday season. The tradition was started by President H.W. Bush, but originated with a joke made up by reports concerning President Reagan, where he sent a turkey named Charlie to a petting zoo in Fairfax, Virginia at the same time that reporters’ questioned him about pardonding key members in the Iran-Contra Affair Scandal. Senior government officials had been selling weapons to Iran for the release of American hostages, and diverting the profits to the anti-government Contra group in Nicargua. After discovering such events, as a struggle for power between the legislative and executive branches occurred, televised Congressional hearings in the summer of 1987 of the proceedings only increased public interest in the scandal. After pestering questions from reporters to Reagan, asking if he would pardon the key officials responsible for such hidden weapons sales, and his choice to send Charlie to the petting zoo around the same time, reporters ran with the joke that he “pardoned” the turkey instead. In the end, Reagan’s successor, President George H.W. Bush pardoned the officials involved in the Iran-Contra Affair in 1992, and set the tradition for presidents to pardon a turkey each Thanksgiving in 1989.

This tradition will continue on Monday, November 24th, when President Trump will announce the winning turkeys that will be pardoned. This year, the turkey duos up for pardoning are named…

• Sugar and Spice
• Pumpkin and Pie
• Gobble and Waddle
• Acorn and Squash

Want your voice to be heard? Vote on the First Lady’s Facebook to select the final pair!