During the customary turkey pardoning event, Donald Trump took the opportunity to criticize his successor Joe Biden.
Each year, the president participates in the ceremonial pardoning of a turkey as part of the Thanksgiving tradition.
Before completing this duty, Trump utilized his speech to criticize Biden, claiming that the previous year’s turkey pardons were not legitimate.
In a speech filled with digressions, Trump stated: “Before going any further I want to make an important announcement, because you remember last year after a thorough and very rigorous investigation by Pam Bondi and all of the people at the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, the White House Council’s Office, and the Department of Everything, we have a Department of Everything, you know what that is, I think that’s called the White House, into a terrible situation caused by a man named Sleepy Joe Biden.”
Trump explained his reasoning: “He used an autopen last year for the turkeys’ pardon, so I have the official duty to determine and I have determined that last year’s turkey pardons are totally invalid.”
An autopen is a device that mimics a person’s signature, and is frequently utilized by high-ranking officials for signing routine documents, with Trump himself having acknowledged using them for such tasks.
Trump declared that the turkey pardons were null, stating, ‘as are the pardons of every other person that was pardoned’.
He humorously added that ‘the turkeys known as Peach and Blossom’ had been found and pardoned once more.
“They will not be served for Thanksgiving dinner,” he announced. “We saved them in the nick of time.”
While it might sound absurd, Trump was actually referencing Biden’s use of an autopen for signing more significant documents than turkey pardons.
Trump alleged that Biden used an autopen to sign pardons for legislators and staff involved in the congressional investigation of the January 6 Capitol riot.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote: “In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!”
Trump has previously criticized Biden’s use of an autopen, with the BBC noting that Biden’s White House portrait had been replaced with a photo of an autopen signing his name.
As reported by AP, there are no existing laws in the US that govern the use of autopens by politicians.