The Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is known as someone who often finds himself having to explain away his verbal slips and slides.
On Thursday, the former neurosurgeon had to work hard to try and reassure a youngster whom he unintentionally humiliated in front of his entire school.
Delivering a speech at the Isaac Newton Christian School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr Carson began to make what he thought was a joke.
A reporter from the Des Moines Register was attending the event and live tweeting Mr Carson’s remarks.
“With a crowd of 500, Ben Carson just called out to 5th grade class: who’s dumbest kid in class? At least half dozen kids point to 1 student,” the reporter tweeted.
The reporter pointed out that Mr Carson had not intended or anticipated this sort of response. Indeed, the candidate later met with the red-faced youngster backstage where he apparently told him he wanted him to become a neurosurgeon as well.
