The tradition of the presidential turkey pardoning every Thanksgiving should be a light-hearted, fun event devoid of politics. But because of the media’s hatred for President Trump, even this pastime has been turned into a political gripe fest. As Trump carried out the annual holiday tradition, cracking jokes along the way as presidents before him have done, journalists took to Twitter to complain about anything and everything they could think to about the pardon, showcasing their inability to take a joke, for even a moment.
MSNBC AM Joy host and self-proclaimed member of the #Resistance against Trump, complained that she can’t enjoy these events anymore with Trump in the White House:
Gotta say these traditions -- the turkey pardon, and other cutesy things presidents do -- are lost to the ether for me when Trump performs them. The legal, ethical and moral clouds over his presidency are like a film on the camera lens.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 21, 2017
While others used the pardon to make cheap shots against Trump.
TV Writer Jess Dweck:
Jeet Heer, Senior Editor of New Republic:At tomorrow’s turkey pardon Trump is just going to pardon Joe Arpaio again then stomp both turkeys to death
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) November 21, 2017
Ana Marie Cox:Trump is more likely to seek consent from a turkey than a woman. https://t.co/lK1o8tzGvR
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) November 21, 2017
Late night TV host Conan O’Brien:So consent is for turkeys. https://t.co/MuvJLcJDTJ
— ana marie cox (@anamariecox) November 21, 2017
President Trump didn’t pardon the whole turkey, just the white meat.
— Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) November 21, 2017
Some journalists revealed their obsession with Russia couldn’t stop them from making the turkey pardon about that too.
Jon Lovett, host of the podcast PodSave America:
Will Saletan, writer for Slate:Trump tries to slip pardon for Don Jr in between turkey a and turkey b.
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) November 21, 2017
Out: Pardoning a turkey.
— Will Saletan (@saletan) November 21, 2017
In: Pardoning an unregistered foreign agent for Turkey. https://t.co/OwNd0IwZJ2
Others acted as if Trump joking about overturning Obama’s turkey pardons was a real threat.
CNN’s Jim Acosta:
The Hill:Good gravy... sounds like Trump was considering overturning Obama's final turkey pardon.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 21, 2017
Trump takes dig at Obama during turkey pardon https://t.co/fldUDCTNgu pic.twitter.com/zberU77Qmi
— The Hill (@thehill) November 21, 2017
Or NBC’s Ali Vitali who wrote for NBC News, “Trump pardons two Thanksgiving turkeys, jokes about killing Obama’s birds.”
GQ also couldn't take a joke writing, “Donald Trump Can’t Even Pardon a Damn Turkey Without Mentioning Barack Obama.”
While MSNBC's Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski took the same offense over the tame joke, in this exchange Thursday morning:
"President Trump pardons two Turkeys and joked about killing President Obama's birds," Brzezinski claimed.
"Come on man! That's just uncool. What's wrong with you?" co-host Joe Scarborough scoffed.
Still others felt the need to "fact-check" Trump.
Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent for The Toronto Star tweeted:
Trump says Harry Truman "refused" to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey, says he's going to be "a much nicer president." Truman was given a turkey as a gift, he didn't "refuse" to pardon it. #turkeyfactcheck
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 21, 2017
