The president said the U.S.-led 60-plus nation anti-ISIL coalition continues to go after the terrorist group “where it hides”.
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He shifted his focus Wednesday to Americans who may worry that the attacks in Paris, which took place at restaurants, a concert venue and a sports stadium, could be replicated in the U.S.
In addition, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that President Obama now must present a plan for destroying ISIS after he signed the $607 billion National Defense Authorization Act the chamber passed earlier this month. “He is TOTUS – Turkey of the United States”, the president decreed. Their names were chosen from submissions entered by schoolchildren in California. He added that the public would be informed if a “specific, credible threat” should arise. They do this exclusively because it makes me feel good.
“It is hard to believe that this is my seventh year of pardoning turkey”. “Time flies even though turkeys don’t”.
Turkeys bred for eating are so fat it is unlikely they will survive a year after being pardoned.
The White House release on the turkeys lists their favorite music as country, although they each have a unique “strut style”.
Obama’s daughters joined their father once again for the annual White House turkey pardoning ceremony on Wednesday and actually chuckled at their dad’s stale jokes.
The turkey lobby started presenting turkeys to the commander-in-chief during the Harry Truman administration, but Truman and successor Dwight Eisenhower ate the birds.
The first documented turkey pardon was given by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The President thanked Jaindl Turkey Farm in Pennsylvania for donating the turkeys that would be served to the vets.
George HW Bush was the first president to formally pardon a Thanksgiving turkey, though stories of spared turkeys date back to Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.
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This year, there were two turkeys up for the title of the National Thanksgiving Turkey, and Americans were able to vote on Twitter for which bird should be crowned the victor. The only major difference is in their “strut style”. After the pardoning, tradition dictates that they will be on display at Morven Park’s “Turkey Hill” at the home of former Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis.
