Carl and Marsha Mueller – the parents of humanitarian worker Kayla Mueller, who was reported dead in 2015 after being abducted by ISIS – claimed her daughter could still be alive if the Obama administration was tougher, in their speech during the fourth and last night of the Republican National Convention.
“Let me just say this: Kayla should be here. If Donald Trump had been president when Kayla was taken prisoner, she would be here today,” Carl Mueller said in an emotional speech Thursday night.
Mueller, 26, was a humanitarian worker from Prescott, Ariz., Who was abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham fighters along with her friend in 2013, after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria .
“Kayla had a gift to see the world through the eyes of another,” Marsha Mueller said Thursday night. “She became a humanitarian aid worker and when she helped children at an orphanage in India, Kayla wrote, ‘I find God in the suffering eyes reflected in mine, if this is how you will be revealed to me, then I will tell you seek forever. ‘ ”
KAYLA MUELLER’S ELTERS Airstrike, soldiers for raid who killed AL-BAGHDADI
Mueller was held captive by ISIS leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who allegedly sexually abused and tortured her for 18 months, before inflating himself in October 2019 when US special forces stormed his compound.
“Kayla was usually kept in a 12-foot by 12-foot cell in isolation confinement,” Carl Mueller said. “It was cold and dirty. ISIS terrorists shone bright lights in their faces. They shaved their heads. They beat and tortured them. The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, repeatedly raped them.”
He and his wife put their trust in the government, he said.
“She persevered for 18 months. “We have endured a lot of back and forth between us, the Obama administration, and ISIS,” he added.
Militants claim that Mueller was killed in a Jordanian airstrike in 2015, originally reported by the New York Times, although her body was never discovered.
Mueller’s parents believe they could have been at home if President Obama had been as “decisive” as President Trump, as they explained in an October interview with The Republic of Arizona.
“President Obama refused to meet with us until ISIS had already ousted other Americans. “To this day, we have never heard of Joe Biden,” Carl Mueller said Thursday night. “Instead, the Obama administration hid so much behind policies that we felt hopeless as they kept us from negotiating to save Kayla’s life.”
The Obama administration has been criticized for a failed rescue mission aimed at bringing four U.S. prisoners home in a makeshift prison in 2015.
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U.S. special forces were too late, and found evidence that the prisoners were being held there but were relocated. Three of the prisoners were eventually captured on camera by the militant group, and Mueller, the only woman, was later killed, according to the Washington Post.
Family members and critics have said the administration is moving too slowly on giving the “green light” for the rescue mission.
Obama later said it was incorrect to say that the US was not moving on the mission as soon as possible.
“Under President Trump, U.S. military special operatives have invaded al-Baghdadi’s compound,” Carl Mueller said.
“After we learned that al-Baghdadi was assassinated, we learned something else: the operators called themselves ‘Task Force 814’ after August 14, Kayla’s birthday,” Carl Mueller said. “And they called the mission Operation Kayla Mueller. To those soldiers: Thank you. Kayla looked down on you.”
He was sure his daughter would live today if Obama were not the president.
“If Donald Trump had been president when Kayla was taken prisoner, she would be here today,” the father said.
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Kayla Mueller’s mother ended her speech with a heartfelt message, addressing the strength of Americans.
“Carl and I support Donald Trump because of his commitment to make and keep 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 struggles within them, “she said.” Americans who don’t just talk, they do. “
Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
