Papua New Guinea PM knocks Biden for ‘loose’ talk about uncle being eaten by cannibals

The prime minister of Papua New Guinea is not so happy about comments made by President Biden, in which he alluded to an incident involving his uncle and cannibals in the South Pacific island nation. 

“Sometimes you have loose moments,” Prime Minister James Marape said in an interview after Mr. Biden’s claims, adding that his nation’s relationship with the U.S. is stronger than “one blurry moment.”

Mr. Biden last week said his uncle Ambrose Finnegan was never found after he was shot down over the Pacific during World War II.

“He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals at the time. They never recovered his body,” the president said.

Mr. Marape said the story came out of the blue.

“I’ve met [Mr. Biden] on four occasions, until today, and on every occasion he’s always had warm regards for Papua New Guinea. Never in those moments has he spoken of PNG as cannibals,” the prime minister said.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting agency, a mishap resulted in the loss of crew members when Finnegan’s aircraft crashed into the ocean. Despite immediate rescue efforts, including one survivor being saved by a nearby barge, exhaustive searches yielded no trace of the crew.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre clarified that the incident occurred over the Pacific Ocean and not over land, countering speculations spurred by Mr. Biden’s offhand comment.

The verbal misstep adds to a series of flubs by Mr. Biden, raising eyebrows among observers and political critics alike. Notable among them is a narrative shared by Mr. Biden this year about an encounter with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, inaccurately stated to have taken place in 2021, despite Kohl having died in 2017. Mr. Biden also mistakenly referred to the late French President Francois Mitterrand while intending to mention current President Emmanuel Macron.

Those gaffes have fueled discussions about the president’s cognitive fitness, a point of contention notably highlighted by his political opponents, including former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.