The 81-year-old president was reminiscing about his late Uncle Ambrose Finnegan's service in the US Army Air Corps during World War II at the United Steelworkers headquarters in Pittsburgh , when he made the startling statement.
Biden recounted: "My uncle became an Army Air Corps and flew those single engine planes as reconnaissance over war zones. He got shot down in New Guinea. They never found the body because there used to be a lot of cannibals in that part of New Guinea."
However, CNN reports that Biden's version of his uncle's demise and the alleged cannibalistic end differs from the official records by the Defence POW/MIA Accounting agency. These documents state that 'Bosie's' aircraft had to make an emergency landing in the sea off New Guinea "for unknown reasons."
The president's cannibal comment was followed by a clumsy attempt to leave the stage, captured on video and causing quite a stir online. In the footage, Biden can be seen hesitating, turning one way, then another, seemingly unsure which way to go, reports the Daily Star .
Social media was abuzz after President Biden's latest gaffe, with one user dubbing him "confused, lost and delusional".
Despite the confusion, it turns out that Biden's statement about his uncle not being recovered is accurate. Finnegan is indeed honored on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Earlier, Biden had paid tribute at a memorial in Scranton, Pennsylvania, acknowledging his uncle's service.
Biden has frequently faced criticism for his lapses in memory and moments of apparent disorientation. In one recent mix-up, he mistakenly referred to French President Emmanuel Macron as Francois Mitterrand, the former president of France who died in 1996.
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