Is it easy to give thanks in 2020 (a pandemic year of COVID-19 with economic travail and election fracas)? POTUS 45 and Pres. Elect disagree

 from www.cnn.com analysis of historic statements by presidents past, present, future

In a pre-Thanksgiving address on Wednesday, Joe Biden offered heartfelt condolences to grieving Americans this holiday season. "I remember that first Thanksgiving. The empty chair, the silence. Takes your breath away," said the President-elect, who has suffered immense personal tragedy over the years. "It's hard to give thanks. It's hard to even think of looking forward, and it's so hard to hope. I understand."

"I'll be thinking and praying for each and every one of you at this Thanksgiving," Biden added, urging Americans to "hang on" and to believe that the nation would soon "get our lives back."

'We will never yield'

Meanwhile, despite clear guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that Americans should not gather for the holidays, Trump's cheery official Thanksgiving statement seemed to bless the potential super-spreader activity. "Although challenges remain, we will never yield in our quest to live up to the promise of our heritage. As we gather with our loved ones, we resolve with abiding faith and patriotism to celebrate the joys of freedom and cherish the hope and peace of a brighter future ahead," he said Wednesday.

In 2001, a few months after the 9/11 attacks that ushered in two decades of war overseas, George W. Bush traveled to Kentucky to share Thanksgiving dinner with US troops. "These have been hard months for Americans," he said. "Yet, this Thanksgiving, we have so much to be thankful for. We're thankful for the love of our families. We're thankful for the goodness and generosity of our fellow citizens. We're thankful for the freedoms of our country. And we're so very thankful to you, the men and women who wear our uniform."

Reclamation

According to legend, Thanksgiving began with a generous feast shared by Indigenous Americans with colonial European settlers ill-prepared to feed themselves. While there's evidence members that the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe did eat together with Pilgrims in 1621, the relationship would eventually lead to the tribe's decimation and loss of land.

analysis by Stephen Collinson