Earlier this week Joe Biden accused New Guinea cannibals of possibly eating his uncle Bosey when his plane crashed on the tropical island decades ago.
Biden reporters on the tarmac as he departed Scranton, Pennsylvania on Wednesday told this shocking story about dear Uncle Bosey’s final days.
Joe Biden: “Ambrose Finnegan, we called him Uncle Bosey – he was shot down, he was in the Air Force before there was an Air Force. He flew a single-engine plane, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea and volunteered when someone couldn’t make it and was shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals…”
Joe Biden then reported this story about Uncle Bosey during his speech in Pittsburgh.
Joe Biden: “My uncle Bosey was in the Air Force before the Air Force came along. He flew those single-engine planes as reconnaissance planes over war zones and he got shot down over New Guinea and they never found his body because there were a lot of cannibals – really – in that part of New Guinea.
The Biden White House later admitted that the story was mostly a lie, and it was.
It’s no surprise that Biden made up much of this war story.
Lieutenant Ambrose Finnegan was a ground crewman and ordinance officer, not a reconnaissance pilot.
In 1944, Finnegan was the passenger on an A-20 (a twin-engine, not single-engine) plane that ditched, but was not shot down.… https://t.co/xxIb5dreOB pic.twitter.com/xrn1WuAbTh
— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) April 17, 2024
Now, New Guinea academics are blaming Joe Biden for his baseless story of cannibalism.
The Daily Mail reports it
Outraged academics in Papua New Guinea have criticized President Joe Biden for his “unacceptable” suggestion that his uncle was eaten by cannibals in the country after his plane was shot down during World War II.
Biden hinted on two occasions Wednesday that his maternal uncle, Second Lieutenant Ambrose J. Finnegan, had met a grisly end at the hands of cannibals after his plane was shot down by the enemy over New Guinea in 1944.
Historically, cannibalism has been reported in Papua New Guinea, the Pacific nation that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, but local academics say Biden’s categorization of the act is “very offensive.”
Michael Kabuni, a political science professor at the University of Papua New Guinea, told The Guardian that cannibalism was previously practiced by some communities in very specific contexts and that locals “didn’t just eat white men who fell from the sky.” .
Other analysts have branded Biden’s claims as “unfounded and poorly evaluated”, especially at a time when the United States is trying to strengthen its ties with Papua New Guinea.
It just sounds like it might be racist. Can you imagine the media reaction if Trump said this?