Throughout the 2016 campaign, presidential hopefuls have been trying to prove they have what it takes to handle the responsibilities of the Oval Office. Now, three candidates in particular are testing out one of the job’s most important and serious responsibilities of all… pardoning a turkey.
The Independent Journal asked Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio to show how they’d perform the task every U.S. president has done annually since 1989. Carson shares some history before outright insulting the bird, saying he’d pardon it because it’s ugly; Rubio talks about his own Thanksgiving traditions and shares some words of wisdom about frying turkeys; and Fiorina offers the creepiest words of all: “We are pardoning the turkey so you go on to find yourself a nice tom and create some turkeys that maybe will get eaten next year.”
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com