Joe Biden caused astonishment on Thursday after telling a family story, that of his uncle, supposedly devoured by cannibals in New Guinea during the Second World War. And as is often the case with family stories, he took liberties with reality, the official documents showing that this uncle died in the crash of his plane at sea.
The Republican opposition did not fail to laugh at the new extravagant digression of the 81-year-old president, an illustration according to them of his cognitive decline. “But yes… that’s it Joe…” quipped the official account of Donald Trump’s campaign on.
The White House defended Joe Biden on Thursday, saying the president, by telling a family story, wanted to honor soldiers and veterans.
Joe Biden paid tribute to his uncle’s memory during a visit to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The president, who was barely a year old when his uncle died in 1944, went to a war memorial and touched his fingertips to the name of Lt. Ambrose Finnegan, engraved on the marker.
His uncle’s plane ‘crashed into the sea’
His plane “was shot down in New Guinea, and they never found his body because there were a lot of cannibals – for real – in that part” of the Oceanian island, said a bit later Joe Biden to steelworkers in Pittsburgh, then again to the press. But the website of the official agency for American prisoners of war and missing persons indicates that Ambrose Finnegan’s plane “crashed at sea” off the coast of New Guinea.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that the president’s uncle had “lost his life when his military plane crashed in the Pacific”, and not on dry land. But she defended Joe Biden, for whom paying tribute to his uncle on this monument had been an “incredibly moving and important” moment, according to the spokesperson.
Joe Biden “highlighted his uncle’s story” to show his support for veterans. A way also to play on the contrast with his presidential rival, Donald Trump, who would have described soldiers who died in combat as “losers” during his mandate.