--- title: Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio Pardon Turkey—Watch description: Ben Carson: “I’m pardoning it for being ugly” canonical: https://time.com/4127051/carson-fiorina-rubio-turkey-pardon-video/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-25T15:47:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:27:10.072Z article:section: Politics og:title: Carson, Fiorina and Rubio Show How They'd Pardon a Turkey og:description: Watch the presidential hopefuls get face time with a turkey og:url: https://time.com/4127051/carson-fiorina-rubio-turkey-pardon-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: Carson, Fiorina and Rubio Show How They'd Pardon a Turkey twitter:description: Watch the presidential hopefuls get face time with a turkey twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Carson, Fiorina and Rubio Show How They'd Pardon a Turkey  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 25, 2015 3:47 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Nov 25, 2015 3:47 PM UTC 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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4127051/carson-fiorina-rubio-turkey-pardon-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4127051/carson-fiorina-rubio-turkey-pardon-video/"},"headline":"Watch Carson, Fiorina and Rubio Show How They'd Pardon a Turkey","datePublished":"2015-11-25T15:47:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:27:10.072Z","description":"The three presidential hopefuls get face time with a turkey","url":"https://time.com/4127051/carson-fiorina-rubio-turkey-pardon-video/","keywords":["2016 Election","Newsfeed","2016 Election topic","Sen. Marco Rubio","2016 Campaign","Dr. Benjamin S. Carson","Carly Fiorina"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"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/4127051/carson-fiorina-rubio-turkey-pardon-video/","name":"Watch Carson, Fiorina and Rubio Show How They'd Pardon a Turkey"}}]}] ```