White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was recently asked about President Biden’s story about his uncle being eaten by cannibals. Biden recently told Pennsylvania voters that his Uncle Bosie was shot down in the Pacific during World War II, where the president suggested natives of New Guinea could have subsequently devoured him.
Jean-Pierre addressed the story when asked by a press member on Air Force One. KJP insisted that Biden told the story because he is very proud of his uncle. Biden made the remarks during a visit to a war memorial in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“He flew single-engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea. He had volunteered because someone couldn’t make it. He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea at the time,” President Biden said. “They never recovered his body.”
KJP defended the president’s story, noting that Biden was “incredibly proud of his Uncle Bosie’s service during the Second World War. “Okay, look, I’ll just and I think we shared this with some of you so I’m just gonna kind of repeat. Look you saw the president. He was incredibly proud of his uncle’s service in uniform. You saw him at the War Memorial. It was incredibly emotional, important to him. You saw him respond to all of you when asked about the moment yesterday, and his uncle who lost his life when the military aircraft he was on crashed in the Pacific after taking off near in New Guinea,” she told the press.
Jean-Pierre further noted that Biden told the story to illustrate the country’s commitment to honoring our service members and their families as they return from war. The press secretary emphasized how the moment was “proud” and “emotional” for Biden.
“The President highlighted his uncle’s story as he made the case for honoring our sacred commitment to, to equip those we send to war and to take care of them and their families when they come home. And as he reiterated that the lasting American veterans are suckers or losers, and he wanted to make that clear. He wanted to make the story. I mean, look, I don’t have anything beyond me about what I just laid out. But it was a really proud moment for him. It was incredibly emotional. I think some of your colleagues is, as you know, Zeke, were there and they got to witness the president pray at the at the woman war memorial. Look for his uncle’s name, honor him,” she said.
KJP concluded, “And I think we can’t we can’t forget that moment. And we cannot also forget what it means to be a commander in chief what it means to lift up our service members what it means to make sure that we respect their service and he made that contract very clear as to what we saw from the former president.” Watch KJP answer the question posed by Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy:
However, an official account from the Pentagon offers a seemingly different narrative than Biden’s: “For unknown reasons, this plane was forced to ditch in the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea. Both engines failed at low altitude, and the aircraft’s nose hit the water hard. Three men failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash. One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members.”
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