Biden floats unsubstantiated claim about his uncle and ‘cannibals’ during WWII
President Joe Biden spoke about his uncle’s WWII experience during a press event. He shared a story about his uncle being shot down over Papua New Guinea, claiming cannibals were involved, despite conflicting military records. The president recounted how his uncle, Ambrose Finnegan, volunteered for risky missions, never recovered after the crash, and some plane parts were found during an investigation.
President Joe Biden appeared to suggest that cannibals ate his uncle after he was shot down during World War II, though military records say otherwise.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden twice recalled the story of his uncle, Ambrose Finnegan, who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces in the Pacific theater of World War II. The president claimed that he was shot down over Papua New Guinea in an area infested with cannibals.
“He flew single-engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea. He had volunteered because someone couldn’t make it. He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea at the time,” Biden said. “They never recovered his body, but the government went back when I went down there, and they checked and found some parts of the plane.”
Biden used the story as a roundabout way to bash Donald Trump, citing a disputed story claiming that the former president refused to visit a cemetery for American soldiers in France because he thought they were “suckers” and “losers.”
Military records contradicted nearly every detail of Biden’s story about his uncle, instead noting that Finnegan’s plane crashed in the ocean due to engine failure.
“For unknown reasons, this plane was forced to ditch in the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea,” a report from the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency said. “Both engines failed at low altitude, and the aircraft’s nose hit the water hard. Three men failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash. One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members.”
The plane was also cited as an A-20 Havoc, a two-engined plane.
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In his remarks, Biden also claimed that the government conducted a search “when I went down there,” finding parts of the plane. In reality, the president caused a diplomatic rift with Papua New Guinea when he scrapped plans to visit last year. No U.S. president has yet visited the island nation, and there are no records of any search that found parts of Finnegan’s plane.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Biden for comment.
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