--- title: Republican Candidates Reveal Debate Rituals in Video description: Republican presidential candidates will face off Saturday night in a key debate, and they've revealed the rituals they'll undertake first canonical: https://time.com/4210744/republican-candidates-debate-rituals-video/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-06T19:02:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:50:07.137Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republican Candidates Reveal Debate Rituals in Video og:description: Republican presidential candidates will face off Saturday night in a key debate, and they've revealed the rituals they'll undertake first og:url: https://time.com/4210744/republican-candidates-debate-rituals-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican Candidates Reveal Debate Rituals in Video twitter:description: Republican presidential candidates will face off Saturday night in a key debate, and they've revealed the rituals they'll undertake first twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Republican Candidates Reveal Their Pre-Debate Rituals  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 6, 2016 7:02 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 6, 2016 7:02 PM UTC The Republican presidential candidates will face off Saturday night in [a key debate](http://time.com/4210652/what-to-watch-at-tonights-gop-debate/), the last one before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary—and [they’ve revealed the rituals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K1-J8k3-Zw) they’ll undertake before stepping on stage. “My favorite thing to do on the day of the debate is play Plants vs. Zombies on my iPhone with my two girls,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in a video on Saturday. “Nothing better to get you in the right mood for the debate.” The video was released by the _Independent Journal Review_, a conservative web publication that has made [several entertaining viral videos](http://time.com/4194218/marco-rubio-football-revenge/) during the campaign. “Siri, what questions will David Muir be asking at the New Hampshire debate?” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says, scrolling through her responses. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush [referenced a comment his mother made](http://time.com/4209300/jeb-bush-barbara-new-hampshire-primary/) on the campaign trail in New Hampshire on Thursday, saying her “too polite” son should interrupt his opponents more during debates. “Before the debate, I normally call my mom to get advice,” he says in the video. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson takes a more extreme approach to preparation. “I take these hundreds of pieces of paper—because they have all the advice that people have given me about what to say during the debate—and light them on fire,” he said. “I’m gonna be me.” **Read more:** [How to Watch Tonight’s Republican Debate Online](http://time.com/4209502/republican-debate-watch-live-stream-online-free-abc/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4210744/republican-candidates-debate-rituals-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4210744/republican-candidates-debate-rituals-video/"},"headline":"Watch Republican Candidates Reveal Their Pre-Debate Rituals","datePublished":"2016-02-06T19:02:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:50:07.137Z","description":"\"Before the debate, I normally call my mom to get advice\"","url":"https://time.com/4210744/republican-candidates-debate-rituals-video/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4210744/republican-candidates-debate-rituals-video/","name":"Watch Republican Candidates Reveal Their Pre-Debate Rituals"}}]}] ```