Parents of slain ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller praise Trump in emotional RNC speech
The parents of Kayla Mueller — the American aid worker kidnapped and killed by Islamic State militants — praised President Trump’s leadership and criticized his predecessor Barack Obama as dithering while their daughter was being tortured in remarks at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Carl and Marsha Mueller on Thursday said they believed Kayla would have been rescued had Trump been in office when she was taken captive.
“We put all our faith in the government. But the government let us down. President Obama refused to meet with us until ISIS had already beheaded other Americans.
“To this day, we’ve never heard from Joe Biden.”
Kayla, a native of Prescott, Ariz., was just 25 when she was captured by ISIS in 2013 after she left a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.
She was held by the terror group for 18 months, during which terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi tortured and raped her.
“For 18 months, she endured, and we endured, an agonizing back-and-forth between us, the Obama administration and ISIS,” her father gravely said on Thursday.
He added: “The military prepared a rescue mission, but the White House delayed it. By the time it went forward, Kayla had been moved to another location.”
Kayla’s parents learned that she had been killed in February 2015, but her body has never been found.
Evidence indicates that al-Baghdadi was responsible for her killing. The terrorist leader was killed last year during a raid 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 their daughter.
“I still say 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, speaking at his rallies on the campaign trail.
In a heart-wrenching moment, Carl held up a picture of his daughter, as Marsha read from a letter that another hostage smuggled out, in which Kayla wrote: “Know I am also fighting from my side in the ways I am able.”
“I have a lot of fight left inside of me.”
The parents said they support Trump “because of his commitment to make and keep America great.”
“Not with the power of the government, but with the passion of people like Kayla — Americans who, even in the darkest days, always have more fight left inside of them. Americans who don’t just talk — they act.”
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