At a North Carolina town hall Thursday, among the toughest questions he faced came from an 11-year-old boy. Young boy to Pence: Are you Trump's apologist?

At a North Carolina town hall Thursday, among the toughest questions Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence faced came from an 11-year-old boy.

“I’ve noticed you’ve been softening up on Trump’s words and policies. Is this going to be your role in the administration?” the boy asked Pence as the crowd erupted in laughter


“What I’ve learned, Matthew, and you’ll learn it when you’re governor of North Carolina … Sometimes things don’t come out the way that you mean them,” Pence said. “I couldn’t be more proud to stand with Donald Trump,” Pence added.

Trump has dealt with an array of controversies over the past week, including a public feud with the parents of a deceased U.S. soldier and a flap over the Republican nominee’s refusal to endorse Paul Ryan in the House speaker’s upcoming primary. In both cases, Trump’s running mate seemed to try to lessen the tension, with Pence praising the parents’' sacrifice and saying that he endorsed Ryan with Trump’s encouragement.

On Thursday, Trump’s running mate also slammed Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, saying they played major roles in secretly sending money to the Iranian government the morning that it released four Americans, adding they “essentially put a price tag on every American” who goes abroad.

Pence insisted Clinton should be automatically disqualified from being president, and he took an opportunity to painted the media as in cahoots with Democrats.

“The funny thing is the party in power seems helpless to figure out our nominee. And of course, I’m referring to the media,” he said. “I mean the media, and the Democrats, they all have the same problems. They all keep telling each other the usual methods are going to work against him, they keep thinking they’ve done him in, they think this is over, we finally got him, and they turn on the TV the next morning and Donald Trump is still standing and fighting in front of thousands of people and he will make America great again.”