[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[November 24, 1993]
[Pages 2065-2067]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters at the Thanksgiving Turkey 
Presentation Ceremony
November 24, 1993

    The President. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and boys and 
girls. It's good to see you here. I want to especially thank 
Congresswoman Leslie Byrne for joining us, along with Stuart Proctor, 
the National Turkey Federation president, and the turkey, clapping for 
the president--[laughter]--Thomas Bross, the chairman of the federation 
and a turkey farmer from Pennsylvania who raised this year's 
Thanksgiving turkey, and the National Turkey Federation staff. Finally, 
I want to welcome the fourth-grade students who are here from 
Springfield Estates Elementary School in Springfield, Virginia. Welcome 
to all of you. I'm glad you're here for Thanksgiving.
    As President, this is my first year to have the honor of accepting 
the annual Thanksgiving turkey and granting the turkey the annual 
Presidential pardon. [Laughter] After this ceremony, this turkey will 
retire to a 1930's working farm replica in Northern Virginia.
    We've come together today to have a little fun but also to express 
our gratitude in this Thanksgiving season for God's many blessings, a 
time to impress upon younger people the heritage of our Nation and the 
commitment we all have to justice and freedom and peace.
    It's also a time to reach out in service to others not as fortunate 
as we are. In a few hours, Hillary and I will visit the new Covenant 
Baptist Church here in Washington where church members and homeless 
families are coming together to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner. 
Thanksgiving, when we all bask in the generosity and hospitality of our 
own family and friends, reminds us that we also belong to a larger 
community full of people who often are not as fortunate as we are.
    It's a time to value those things and to remember how strong we are 
when we come together to overcome adversity. In the last few months I've 
had a chance to spend a lot of time in the Middle West, dealing with the 
floods and their aftermath, and then last Sunday I went to church in 
California with two dozen people who went through the horrible trauma of 
the wildfires in the West. And I saw again what people can do when they 
pull together and remember that we are all in this together.
    Tomorrow, I'll have the great good fortune of celebrating 
Thanksgiving with my family, reflecting on the past year and looking to 
the future. I'll have the chance to say a prayer of thanks for the many 
blessings that I have enjoyed. I ask all of you to do that. I wish you 
well on this Thanksgiving and to remember also our continuing 
obligations for our fellow Americans who don't have many of the things 
we take for granted. Together we can make this country stronger and have 
even more to be thankful for next Thanksgiving.
    Thank you very much. [Applause] And thank you for the applause.
    Somebody pointed out this morning that this may not be the only 
turkey I've had in my administration, but this is one I will certainly 
set free. [Laughter]

[At this point, the President spoke with the children.]

Turkey Presentation

    The President. I'm experienced in this. I come from the fourth 
largest turkey-growing State in the country .
    Q. Is this your first Presidential pardon?
    The President. It is my first Presidential pardon.
    Q. You're going into great detail over this--

[[Page 2066]]

[inaudible]
    The President. Yes, we were talking to the kids about the turkey. 
This is a very well behaved turkey.
    Q. We were hoping for something better, actually.
    The President. I asked the gentleman who raised him, you know, if 
they went to any trouble, any extra effort to raise him, and he said 
that they had spent a lot of time handling him, so he's more comfortable 
around people.
    Q. Were you concerned at all about this, because this has some 
ridiculous aspects for a President----
    The President. So many of my predecessors have participated in 
this--[inaudible]. I actually didn't mind it. I think it's kind of 
funny, and it's an annual ritual. As I said, it's a little easier for me 
because I've been around turkeys all my life. I didn't mean it like 
that--[laughter]--and I come from a State that grows a lot of turkeys. 
We also have a huge wild turkey population at home, too, so it's not as 
alien an experience for me as it would be for some people.
    Q. Do you think the Founding Fathers made the right choice not 
choosing a turkey as the national bird?
    Q. You know Franklin proposed it. He really did.
    The President. Yes, he did. Well, actually, let me tell you--but 
what Franklin meant--wild turkeys, and they're quite beautiful, if 
you've ever seen them. They're bottom heavy, like a regular turkey, but 
they're quite beautiful. And they can go from zero to 35 miles an hour 
in no time, something most people don't know, an amazing creature to see 
operate in the woods. And being out there in the woods on an early 
November or December morning, listening to the turkeys, actually, in our 
State, it's turkey season earlier.
    Q. Does this remind you of any of the Members of Congress you've 
been dealing with in the last--[laughter]--
    Q. Speaking of that, what's the latest----

Handgun Control Legislation

    Q. What's the latest on the Brady bill?
    The President. I don't know. Senator Mitchell has put a very, I 
think, good offer on the table. He has offered, with my strong support, 
to put in a separate bill as soon as they come back, several provisions 
of the Brady bill that we don't think would weaken the bill that Senator 
Dole wanted, one of which deals with the automation of records and when 
that could supplant the waiting period, when the records are automated, 
that 67 Senators voted for before, including Senator Dole. One deals 
with giving them what they wanted, which was a 4-year instead of 5-year 
time period, with an extra year it could be extended at the Attorney 
General's discretion. And I think there's another change in there. 
Senator Mitchell has gone the extra mile, and I have authorized him to 
say that I will strongly support the legislation so that it would permit 
the Senate Republicans to give up on the filibuster and send the Brady 
bill to us now and we could give it to the American people for 
Thanksgiving. That's what I think they ought to do, but we'll just have 
to see. I certainly hope they----
    Q. Why do you think the Republicans are so adamant?
    The President. I don't know. I think they're just--[inaudible]. I 
don't know. People who don't want the bill are holding it hostage. We 
should have done this long ago. It's an important first step in trying 
to get ahold of gun violence in this country and make our streets safer 
and enable our police officers to do their jobs better. And we now have 
the support of 80 percent of the American people and a big majority in 
the Senate. We know we have over 60 Senators prepared to vote for this 
bill, but the political gridlock is holding one more than 40 of them. In 
the filibuster system, you know, 41 percent of the Senate can prevent a 
bill from coming to a vote. I think it's a terrible mistake, and I hope 
we can break out of it today.
    Q. What kind of a political price are the Republicans going to pay 
for this, after citing the statistics they used----
    The President. Well, I think the American people want us to act. I 
think they do not want this to be a partisan political issue. I think 
the safety of our streets has become also a national security issue. I 
think the American people want us to act. And I don't want to make it a 
partisan issue. I have bent over backwards not to. I want to work with 
the Republicans on the crime bill. I want to put another 100,000 police 
officers on the street. I want that assault weapons ban. I don't think 
it ought to be a partisan issue. But their partisan filibuster is making 
it a partisan issue, and I think that it's a mistake for them to do it. 
But we're going to keep working as hard as we can. I still think we've 
got a

[[Page 2067]]

chance to get it done, and I hope that the American people will be 
supportive. I know they are; that's what they're hearing out there. 
We've just got to keep on plugging.
    Q. Hasn't it become personal, also, Mr. President? Senator Dole 
thinks he was sandbagged by the Democrats.
    The President. Well, I know he thinks that, and I don't want to get 
into this, because I can't--I mean, he says that, but this has nothing 
to do with the underlying merits. This is either a good bill or not a 
good bill, number one. Number two, the Republicans on the conference 
committee were not even on the regular committee, and they were people 
who had no intention of voting for the Brady bill if all the changes 
they wanted were adopted. So the Democrats argued that they felt that 
they didn't know what they were supposed to talk about with people who 
weren't going to vote for it regardless and who weren't even on the 
committee that had jurisdiction of the Brady bill. So you can hear 
arguments on both sides about that, but that's irrelevant, that's 
irrelevant.
    This is a good thing for the American people. It's a good first 
step. It's the right thing to do. If you stay around these battles now, 
and you've been through all of the stuff we've been through just in the 
last year, all of us--if you go around letting your personal feelings 
get in the way of doing the public interest, we'd never get anything 
done around here.

Note: The President spoke at 10:36 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House.