--- title: Republican Debate: Ben Carson's Fruit Salad Won the Internet description: "The fruit salad of their life is what I will look at." canonical: https://time.com/4238309/ben-carsons-fruit-salad-makes-the-internet-go-bananas/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-26T03:50:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:28.389Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ben Carson's Fruit Salad Makes the Internet Go Bananas og:description: Dr. Ben Carson has an interesting recipe for selecting a Supreme Court nominee—fruit salad. og:url: https://time.com/4238309/ben-carsons-fruit-salad-makes-the-internet-go-bananas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte805a0eafbdcd58d/69887f3b2dce01ee119e7f8b/timepol-presidential-candidates-donald-trump-marco-rubio-ted-cruz-john-kasich-ben-carson-121.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1795 og:image:height: 1010 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Ben Carson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Carson's Fruit Salad Makes the Internet Go Bananas twitter:description: Dr. Ben Carson has an interesting recipe for selecting a Supreme Court nominee—fruit salad. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte805a0eafbdcd58d/69887f3b2dce01ee119e7f8b/timepol-presidential-candidates-donald-trump-marco-rubio-ted-cruz-john-kasich-ben-carson-121.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ben Carson's Fruit Salad Makes the Internet Go Bananas > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 26, 2016 3:50 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks during the Republican presidential debate on Feb. 25, 2016 in Houston. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks during the Republican presidential debate on Feb. 25, 2016 in Houston. Michael Ciaglo—Press Pool by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 26, 2016 3:50 AM UTC Dr. Ben Carson has an interesting recipe for selecting a Supreme Court nominee—fruit salad. When answering how he would choose his nominee, if he was elected president, the former neurosurgeon described an unusual selection process. “I would go through and I would look at what a person’s life has been. What have they done in the past? What kind of judgments have they made? What kind of associations do they have? That will tell you a lot more than an interview will tell you,” Carson said. “The fruit salad of their life is what I will look at.” Carson could be referencing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, a collection of sayings and teachings from the bible. He has [previously invoked the sermon](http://time.com/4206965/ben-carson-ted-cruz-fight-iowa/) when calling on Sen. Ted Cruz to fire his staffers after the [“dirty tricks” incident at the Iowa Caucuses](http://time.com/4203730/ben-carson-ted-cruz-caucus-dirty-tricks/). “I’m talking about what everybody does,” Carson said at the time. “By their fruit you will know them. That was the Sermon on the Mount. And it was in the context when Jesus said there are some people who aren’t what they seem to be, who say one thing and do another. But you can always tell who they are by their fruit.” The fruit salad remarks were extremely popular on social media, trending nationally on Twitter with some 20,000 tweets about fruit salad in an hour, according to social platform Spredfast. > [](https://twitter.com/rowblanchard/status/703047966689357825) > [](https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/703054868047597568) > [](https://twitter.com/jbview/status/703045149149024256) > [](https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/703045485670477826) > [](https://twitter.com/jsmooth995/status/703051152674459648) There’s even an account called Fruit Salad of Life. > [](https://twitter.com/Fruit%5FSaIad/status/703052629195276288) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4238309/ben-carsons-fruit-salad-makes-the-internet-go-bananas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4238309/ben-carsons-fruit-salad-makes-the-internet-go-bananas/"},"headline":"Ben Carson's Fruit Salad Makes the Internet Go Bananas","datePublished":"2016-02-26T03:50:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:28.389Z","description":"\"The fruit salad of their life is what I will look at.\"","url":"https://time.com/4238309/ben-carsons-fruit-salad-makes-the-internet-go-bananas/","keywords":["2016 Election","republicans","2016 Election","Dr. Benjamin S. 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