Remarks by President Biden Before Air Force One Departure | Avoca, PA

Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport
Avoca, Pennsylvania

12:05 P.M. EDT

Q Mr. President, will you talk about the war memorial you were just at very briefly? What did you see? What did you hear?

THE PRESIDENT: I wanted to see where my uncle, Ambrose J. Finnegan, was memorialized. And there was a World War Two memorial built for those who lost their lives in World War Two.

And when D-Day occurred, the next day, on Monday, all four of my mother's brothers went down and volunteered to join the military. And four of them - three of them made it. One was 4-F - couldn't go.

And Ambrose Finnegan - we called him "Uncle Bosie" - he - he was shot down. He was Army Air Corps before there was an Air Force. 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.

They never recovered his body. But the government went back, when I went down there, and they checked and found some parts of the plane and the like.

And what I was thinking about when I was standing there was when Trump refused to go up to the memorial for veterans in Paris, and he said they were a bunch of "suckers" and "losers."

To me, that is such a disqualifying assertion made by a president - "suckers" and "losers." The guys who saved civilization in the 1940s - "suckers" and "losers."

And I just wanted to go and - we have a tradition in our family that my grandfather started. When you visit a gravesite of a family member - it's going to sound strange to you, but - you say three Hail Marys. And that's what I was doing at the site.

My - my gran- - my uncle, Ambrose Finnegan - Uncle - Uncle Bosie was a hell of a guy from what I - I never met him, obviously.

And - but I just wanted to see where he was memorialized.

Q And, Mr. President, what do you think about these separate bills for Ukraine and Israel aid? Are you confident that it's going to get through?

THE PRESIDENT: I'm getting briefed on it when I get on the plane. That's why I was talking to my staff. I'll tell you then.

Thank you.

12:08 P.M. EDT