President Joe Biden on Wednesday mischaracterized the circumstances of his uncle’s death during World War II as he castigated the former president Donald Trump‘s comments about the military.
“He was shot in New Guinea, and they never found the body, because there used to be – there really were a lot of cannibals in that part of New Guinea,” Biden said during his remarks invoking his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan.
However, US military documents on Finnegan’s death do not mention that the plane was shot down or mention cannibalism.
“For unknown reasons, this aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in the ocean off the northern coast of New Guinea,” the data said. “Both engines failed at low altitude and the nose of the aircraft hit the water hard.”
The three men who died in the crash have not been found, according to records.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates did not directly address the apparent inaccuracy. He noted in a statement to NBC News that Biden was “proud of the service of his uniformed uncle, who lost his life when the military plane he was in crashed in the Pacific Ocean after taking off near New Guinea.”
“The President highlighted his uncle’s story as he advocated meeting our ‘sacred obligation… to equip those we send to war and care for them and their families when they return home,’ while reiterating that the last thing American veterans are ‘suckers’ or ‘losers,’” Bates added.
During his remarks, Biden drew a contrast between his family’s military service and Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about military members, as Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” according to a report in The Atlantic. Trump denied making these comments.
“‘Suckers’ and ‘Losers.’ That man does not deserve to have been the commander-in-chief of my son, my uncle,” Biden said during his speech.
Biden also often talks about his son Beau Biden, who served in the Delaware Army National Guard and deployed to Iraq. His son died in 2015 after a battle with brain cancer. Biden has previously incorrectly stated that he lost his son “in Iraq,” even though his son died in the US after returning home from military service. Biden also apparently mischaracterized the war record of another uncle of his when he falsely said he was trying to deliver a Purple Heart to his Uncle Frank, according to FactCheck.org.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
