--- title: Jeb Bush Would Kill Baby Hitler If He Could Time Travel description: “You gotta step up, man,” the Republican presidential hopeful said canonical: https://time.com/4105477/jeb-bush-baby-hitler/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-09T21:07:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:26:45.568Z og:title: Jeb Bush Would Go Back and Kill Baby Hitler og:description: The Republican presidential hopeful was asked if he'd go back in time og:url: https://time.com/4105477/jeb-bush-baby-hitler/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1034ef4309650348/6988703ccf40a82ff7c4091f/jeb-bush-would-kill-baby-hitler.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jeb Bush og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jeb Bush Would Go Back and Kill Baby Hitler twitter:description: The Republican presidential hopeful was asked if he'd go back in time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1034ef4309650348/6988703ccf40a82ff7c4091f/jeb-bush-would-kill-baby-hitler.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jeb Bush Would Time Travel and Kill Baby Hitler If Given the Chance  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 9, 2015 9:07 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush listens during a campaign stop with area law enforcement officers on Nov. 4, 2015, in Goffstown, N.H. Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush listens during a campaign stop with area law enforcement officers on Nov. 4, 2015, in Goffstown, N.H.Jim Cole—AP  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 9, 2015 9:07 PM UTC Last month, the New York _Times_ asked readers a question that has inspired [great works of literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life%5FAfter%5FLife%5F%28novel%29) and [many ethical debates](http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/killing-baby-hitler-ethics/412273/): if you could travel back and time and kill Hitler when he was a baby, presumably stopping the events that led to World War II as far as we know, would you do it? Now, a presidential hopeful is weighing in. The Huffington Post [posed that question to Jeb Bush](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeb-bush-on-killing-baby-hitler%5F5640e1b6e4b0411d3071da54), who says was all in favor of a time-traveling mission to alter the course of history: “Hell yeah, I would!” he said. “You gotta step up, man.” But Bush, referencing _Back to the Future_, said he was aware that messing with the events of the past could have unintended consequences. “It could have a dangerous effect on everything else, but I’d do it — I mean, Hitler,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4105477/jeb-bush-baby-hitler/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4105477/jeb-bush-baby-hitler/"},"headline":"Jeb Bush Would Time Travel and Kill Baby Hitler If Given the Chance","datePublished":"2015-11-09T21:07:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:26:45.568Z","description":"“You gotta step up, man,” the Republican presidential hopeful said","url":"https://time.com/4105477/jeb-bush-baby-hitler/","keywords":["Newsfeed","2016 Election topic","jeb bush","2016 Campaign"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1034ef4309650348/6988703ccf40a82ff7c4091f/jeb-bush-would-kill-baby-hitler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1034ef4309650348/6988703ccf40a82ff7c4091f/jeb-bush-would-kill-baby-hitler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jeb Bush","caption":"Jeb Bush","creditText":"Jim Cole—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"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":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4105477/jeb-bush-baby-hitler/","name":"Jeb Bush Would Time Travel and Kill Baby Hitler If Given the Chance"}}]}] ```