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Some media outlets reported on President Biden telling an odd cannibal story twice on Wednesday as a “misstatement” rather than an outright lie, which critics say is different from how Trump is normally treated.
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 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.”
US President Joe Biden claimed during a Pennsylvania event his uncle’s body was never found “because there used to be, there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea” where he died. ((Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images))
Though military records from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency showed that Biden’s uncle died after a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean with no reference to possible cannibalism, several outlets stopped short of calling it a lie.
In contrast, NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News Digital, when it comes to “the likes of Donald Trump, the knee-jerk instinct is to use the word ‘lie.'”
A headline for NBC on Wednesday read, “Biden mischaracterizes his uncle’s disappearance during World War II,” and noted that Biden “was drawing a contrast between the military service of his family and Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about military members.”
Though NBC acknowledged that U.S. military records did not reference cannibalism regarding Biden’s uncle’s death, the article only referred to the comments as an “apparent misstatement.”
“Biden and his fellow leftists are always given the benefit of the doubt. With the liberal media and the so-called fact-checkers out there, a certain degree of innocence is assigned to Democrats when they say things that are untrue,” said Houck.
Other outlets continued the distancing.
The Associated Press featured a headline the same day reading, “Biden is off on details of his uncle’s WWII death as he calls Trump unfit to lead the military.” In the article itself, AP wrote that Biden only “misstated key details” about his uncle’s death.
MSNBC’s online coverage of Biden’s comment on Thursday called the cannibalism suggestion “odd” and noted that Biden had never brought up the story before Wednesday. However, the piece described Biden’s claims as simply an “embellishment” or “unsubstantiated family lore,” despite also acknowledging the military records.
Mainstream media outlets avoided calling Biden’s claim that his uncle could have been eaten by cannibals a lie. (Getty Images)
CNN reported simply, “Biden’s accounting of his uncle’s death — and possible cannibalization — differs from the account published by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting agency.”
Houck told Fox News Digital, “The profession in which accuracy, facts, and truth are supposedly paramount, they turn into armchair psychologists whenever one of their own lies and all but insist so and so didn’t really mean it.
“Of course, Trump — like any politician — plays fast and loose with the facts, but the reality is there isn’t just less scrutiny for the other side. In many cases, there’s no scrutiny at all,” he added.
BIDEN’S LIES, OUTRIGHT FABRICATIONS REPEATEDLY DISMISSED, DOWNPLAYED AND SOFTENED BY MEDIA
When asked about Biden’s claim during a gaggle on Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre avoided directly referencing the cannibal story and instead focused on the event.
“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 and important to him,” Jean-Pierre answered.
She continued, “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 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 to take care of them and their families when they come home, and, as he reiterated, that the last thing American veterans are suckers or losers, and he wanted to make that clear.”
When questioned further, she insisted that she didn’t “have anything beyond what [she] just laid out.”
The White House did not directly address Biden’s claim about his uncle’s death. (Getty Images)
“But it was a really proud moment for him. It was incredibly emotional. I think some of your colleagues … were there, and they got to witness the president pray at the war memorial, look for his uncle’s name, honor him, and I think we can’t forget that moment. 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,” Jean-Pierre said.
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Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.
