The parents of Kayla Mueller – the American aid worker abducted and killed by Islamic State militants – praised President Trump’s leadership and criticized his predecessor Barack Obama for dithering while her daughter was tortured in remarks at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Carl and Marsha Mueller said Thursday that they believed Kayla would have been rescued if Trump had been in office when she was imprisoned.
“We put all our trust in the government. But the government let us down. President Obama refused to meet with us until ISIS had already ousted other Americans.
“To this day, we have never heard of Joe Biden.”
Kayla, a resident of Prescott, Ariz., Was just 25 when she was taken prisoner by ISIS in 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.
She was detained for 18 months by the terrorist group, during which terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi tortured and raped her.
“For 18 months she has endured, and we have endured, a pain-and-go-between between us, the Obama administration and ISIS,” her father said Thursday.
He added: “The Army has prepared a rescue mission, but the White House has delayed it. By the time it moved forward, Kayla had moved to another location.”
Kayla’s parents learned that she was murdered in February 2015, but her body was never found.
Evidence indicates that al-Baghdadi was responsible for her murder. The terrorist leader was killed last year in a robbery ordered by Trump and carried out by US special forces in Syria.
The Muellers have praised Trump for approving the mission, and previously accused the Obama administration of not being decisive enough to save her daughter.
‘I’m still saying Kayla should be here, and if [former President] “Obama had been as decisive as President Trump, maybe she would have been,” Marsha told The Arizona Republic in October.
Carl has been a vocal supporter of the president, and spoke at his meetings about the campaign track.
In a heartbreaking moment, Carl held up a photo of his daughter as Marsha read from a letter smuggled by another hostage, in which Kayla wrote, “Know that I, too, am fighting on my part in the ways that ‘ I can. “
“I have a lot of struggles left in me.”
The parents said they support Trump “because of his commitment to making and keeping America great.”
“Not with the power of government, but with the passion of people like Kayla – Americans who, even in the darkest days, always have more fighting in them. Americans who don’t just talk – they do.”
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