US President Joe Biden has said that cannibals consumed his uncle, who vanished in the Pacific during World War II. Following his light bomber crash in the sea in May 1944, US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant Ambrose Finnegan was reported missing.
In the Scranton, Pennsylvania, location where there were many cannibals at the time, Biden informed reporters while on the campaign trail outside Air Force One. "The government returned when I went down there and they checked and they found some parts of the plane, but they never recovered his body."
Biden recounted the same tale several hours later at a Pittsburgh meeting with United Steelworkers union members.
The 81-year-old Democrat said, "He got shot down in New Guinea and they never found the body because there used to be - there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea."
However, Finnegan was never shot down, according to the Pentagon's department for prisoners of war and missing in action (POW-MIA). Nor was it, as Biden said, on a reconnaissance mission.
According to the official incident report, the A-20 Havoc light bomber's engines failed at low altitude while it was on a "courier run" from Los Negros Island. Two of the three crew members perished in the sinking wreck, which was never located, after the aircraft fell into the water off the north coast of New Guinea. A boat that was passing by saved the lone survivor.
Throughout his 50-year political career, Biden has recounted several made-up stories about his life. Perhaps the most well-known is the one about being detained while attempting to see Nelson Mandela in jail in South Africa. He has more than a dozen times rehashed one disproved claim concerning an Amtrak conductor.
However, the allegation that Uncle Ambrose was a cannibal was used as a launchpad to criticize his predecessor, and likely rival, Donald Trump. During his Pittsburgh campaign address, Biden related anecdotal evidence that Trump had called slain US troops buried in France "losers" and "suckers," and had failed to pay them respect.
November 2018, the centennial of the WWI armistice, was the setting for the narrative that debuted in The Atlantic magazine in September 2020. "More made up fake news given by disgusting and jealous failures in a disgraceful attempt to influence the 2020 election," Trump tweeted in response to the charge, rejecting it.
Democrats have continued to bring up the Atlantic's assertion as if it were genuine despite documents refuting it appearing within days.
In the Scranton, Pennsylvania, location where there were many cannibals at the time, Biden informed reporters while on the campaign trail outside Air Force One. "The government returned when I went down there and they checked and they found some parts of the plane, but they never recovered his body."
Biden recounted the same tale several hours later at a Pittsburgh meeting with United Steelworkers union members.
The 81-year-old Democrat said, "He got shot down in New Guinea and they never found the body because there used to be - there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea."
However, Finnegan was never shot down, according to the Pentagon's department for prisoners of war and missing in action (POW-MIA). Nor was it, as Biden said, on a reconnaissance mission.
According to the official incident report, the A-20 Havoc light bomber's engines failed at low altitude while it was on a "courier run" from Los Negros Island. Two of the three crew members perished in the sinking wreck, which was never located, after the aircraft fell into the water off the north coast of New Guinea. A boat that was passing by saved the lone survivor.
Throughout his 50-year political career, Biden has recounted several made-up stories about his life. Perhaps the most well-known is the one about being detained while attempting to see Nelson Mandela in jail in South Africa. He has more than a dozen times rehashed one disproved claim concerning an Amtrak conductor.
However, the allegation that Uncle Ambrose was a cannibal was used as a launchpad to criticize his predecessor, and likely rival, Donald Trump. During his Pittsburgh campaign address, Biden related anecdotal evidence that Trump had called slain US troops buried in France "losers" and "suckers," and had failed to pay them respect.
November 2018, the centennial of the WWI armistice, was the setting for the narrative that debuted in The Atlantic magazine in September 2020. "More made up fake news given by disgusting and jealous failures in a disgraceful attempt to influence the 2020 election," Trump tweeted in response to the charge, rejecting it.
Democrats have continued to bring up the Atlantic's assertion as if it were genuine despite documents refuting it appearing within days.
