President Joe Biden exaggerated details while recounting a story about his uncle’s disappearance during World War II, suggesting that he had been…eaten by “cannibals” after being “shot down” in Papua New Guinea.
During a visit to Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Biden spoke about his uncle Ambrose Finnegan, a second lieutenant in the Fifth Air Force during the war, who went missing on May 14, 1944, while flying from Los Negros Island to Nadzab Airfield in New Guinea.
“He was shot down in New Guinea, and they never recovered the body because there were, truly, many cannibals in that part of New Guinea,” Biden told steelworkers during his speech.
Earlier in the day, while visiting a World War II memorial in Scranton, the president repeated a similar narrative: “He was shot down in an area where there were many cannibals at the time. His body was never found, but when I visited there, the government investigated and found some parts of the plane.”
However, official government records about the crash suggest otherwise. According to a U.S. military report, the plane ditched in the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea due to mechanical failure. Three crew members drowned, while one survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search found no trace of the missing aircraft or crew members the following day.
Reuters: The losing battle against Greece’s tumbling birthrate – Analysis
Although New Guinea was fiercely contested during World War II, with reports of cannibalism, Biden’s remarks about his uncle’s disappearance diverge from the documented account of the incident.
This is not the first time Biden has embellished details about his relatives’ military service. In a speech in December 2022, he claimed to have awarded his deceased uncle, Frank Biden, the Purple Heart for action during World War II. However, there is no evidence to support this claim, as both Biden’s father and uncle were deceased before Biden became vice president in 2009.
