Carson: Debate-closing joke was improvised

URBANDALE - It was arguably his finest and best-received moment of the night. It came at the end of the event.

And Ben Carson said it was all off the cuff.

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, joked during his closing statement at Thursday night's Republican presidential candidate debate in Cleveland that what separates him from the rest of the crowded GOP field is he has separated Siamese twins, operated on children still in the womb and removed half a person's brain.

The next day in Iowa, Carson said the jovial moment was unplanned.

'That was not planned. I was sitting there, I was trying to think of a really good close, and I said, ‘Lord, I need a good close here.' And then somebody down at the other end said, ‘I'm the only one on this stage,' and I had heard that several times. And I said, ‘That's it,'” Carson said Friday while meeting with reporters at his Iowa campaign headquarters. 'It was very favorably received.”

Here's what Carson said at the debate:

'Well, I haven't said anything about me being the only one to do anything, so let me try that. I'm the only one to separate Siamese twins, the only one to operate on babies while they were still in mother's womb, the only one to take out half of a brain, although you would think, if you go to Washington, that someone had beat me to it.”

Carson returned to Iowa following the debate to campaign through the weekend. He planned 'family festival” events on Saturday in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines and on Sunday in Council Bluffs. Also, he will speak at LifePoint Assembly of God Church on Sunday morning in Osceola.

The Carson campaign also went to the Iowa airwaves with its first TV and radio advertisements, which started Friday.

'(The ads) will be explaining that we've got to start looking out for the future and caring about what's going to happen to the next generation,” Carson said.

Carson was disappointed he did not have more opportunity to spread his message during Thursday night's presidential debate, the first of the series. He said the large field made it difficult to talk about as many issues as he would have liked.

He also indicated he was disappointed candidates Donald Trump and Jeb Bush got more time to talk than the rest of the field. Reporters who timed the candidates' speaking windows showed Trump spoke for roughly 11 minutes and Bush almost nine minutes. Carson was in the middle of the pack at roughly seven minutes.

'When I finally got some questions, it went well,” Carson said. 'Obviously, when you have that many people, and on average, we got six minutes apiece. … It's difficult in a situation like that.”

Carson said he was pleased with the reaction his campaign received on social media. An aide said his Twitter account has received 24,000 new followers in the past 24 hours, and his Facebook page 253,000 new 'fans” in the past 48 hours.