Biden takes heat over strange cannibal story: 'Like something out of a bad script'

President Biden seemed to imply Wednesday that a relative of his was eaten by cannibals during World War II, but the tale quickly faced mockery and skepticism online.

While in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Biden shared a story about his uncle, 2nd Lt. Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr., whom he called "Bosie." "He flew those single-engine planes as reconnaissance over war zones, and he got shot down in New Guinea. They never found the body because there used to be, there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea," he said.

Biden had also told a version of the story earlier that day while visiting the missing-in-action war memorial in his hometown of Scranton claiming, "He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea at the time. They never recovered [Finnegan's] body. But the government went back, when I went down there, and they checked and found some parts of the plane and the like."

Sources like the Associated Press said the details were incorrect, noting, "The U.S. government’s record of missing service members does not attribute Finnegan’s death to hostile action or indicate cannibals were any factor."

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 17: President Joe Biden speaks to members of the United Steel Workers Union at the United Steel Workers Headquarters on April 17, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

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The AP noted further that the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Biden’s uncle had died on May 14, 1944, as a passenger on an Army Air Forces plane that was forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean off New Guinea’s northern coast. "Both engines failed at low altitude, and the aircraft’s nose hit the water hard," the agency stated. "Three men failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash."

When reached for comment, White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital, "President Biden is proud of his uncle’s service in uniform, who lost his life when the military aircraft he was on crashed in the Pacific after taking off near New Guinea. The President highlighted his uncle’s story as he made the case for honoring our ‘sacred commitment…to equip those we send to war and take care of them and their families when they come home,’ and as he reiterated that the last thing American veterans are is ‘suckers’ or ‘losers.’"

Social media erupted over this latest tall tale from the president.

"Unsurprisingly, Biden has made up most of this war story. Lt. Ambrose Finnegan was a ground crew member and ordinance officer, not a reconnaissance pilot," GOP communications expert Zach Parkinson wrote, alongside a purported military record and newspaper clipping. "In 1944, Finnegan was the passenger of an A-20 (a twin-engine, not single-engine plane) that ditched, it wasn't shot down. The flight went down over the Bismarck Sea, not ‘in an area where there were a lot of cannibals.’"

"You know when you're talking to an old person and he's telling you a story about his life and you realize it's the plot of a movie he once saw," Substack writer Jim Treacher joked. 

The 81-year-old president has long traded on his blue-collar image as "Scranton Joe" to reach out to middle- and working-class voters. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

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"Mush brain strikes again," conservative humor account Catturd wrote.

Comedian Tim Young argued that "Biden has added a new greatest hit to his completely phony stories," and later asked, "What the actual f*ck?!?!"

"One false claim by @JoeBiden after another," Crime Prevention Research Center president John R Lott Jr. wrote.

"’Corn Pop’ has been replaced by ‘Uncle Bosey!’" radio host Mike Opelka wrote, referring to the subject of a previous Biden story.

"This is like something out of a bad script that a 12 year old would write," radio host Mike Gallagher wrote. "As Rush would say, you just cannot make this stuff up."

"Go home Joe," author Jim Hanson wrote.

"I don’t have time for this," Washington Free Beacon reporter Joe Gabriel Simonson said.

Alexander Hall is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..