During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Trump acknowledged the parents of a young Christian woman who was personally abused by the late Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
“We are joined this evening by Carl and Marsha Mueller,” the president said. “After graduating from college, their beautiful daughter, Kayla, became a humanitarian aid worker. She once wrote, ‘Some people find God in church, some people find God in nature, some people find God in love. I find God in suffering. I’ve known for some time what my life’s work is: using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.'”
Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old from Prescott, Arizona, “was drawn to alleviate the suffering of Syrian refugees.” After helping with humanitarian aid groups in India, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, Mueller moved to southern Turkey during the Syrian civil war in 2012. She worked with Support to Life and the Danish Refugee Council to aid those fleeing the conflict.
Explaining how she was kidnapped from a Doctors Without Borders hospital outside of Aleppo in 2013, the president said: “While caring for suffering civilians in Syria, Kayla was kidnapped, tortured, and enslaved by ISIS and kept as a prisoner of al Baghdadi himself.”
“After more than 500 horrifying days of captivity, al Baghdadi murdered young, beautiful Kayla,” Trump said.
[Also read: ‘He did the right thing’: Father of Kayla Mueller defends Trump for hiding Baghdadi raid from Congress]
Trump explained how Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, named the historic raid that killed al Baghdadi based on Kayla Mueller’s birthday.
“Carl and Marsha, America’s warriors never forgot Kayla, and neither will we,” Trump said. Her parents rose to their feet and displayed a photo of their daughter to the applause of all in the chamber.
Carl Mueller told the Washington Examiner in the wake of al Baghdadi’s death that the president “did the right thing” to hide from Congress and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the raid that killed his daughter’s tormentor.
“I stand with Mr. Trump on this, the president,” Carl Mueller said. “I came up with a simple formula, and I ask people to honestly answer the question that I raise, given all the leaks that come out of D.C. constantly, especially in the Trump administration. If you had the fate of 100 men on your shoulders — and if you made the wrong move, those men could lose their lives — if you had to make the call, how many people would you tell about this raid?”
“If there happened to be a leak, they could all die,” he said. “He did the right thing. He was protecting those soldiers.”
ISIS leader al Baghdadi was killed during a top-secret operation in northwest Syria in late October. With the aid of at least eight military helicopters and a dog named Conan, the leader of ISIS met his end “whimpering and crying and screaming” as he detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and three children, the president said.
[Related: ‘The ultimate fighter’: Trump honors Conan, dog injured in Baghdadi raid]
Carl and Marsha Mueller also expressed their disgust to the Daily Caller when the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation stripped from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo its “American Hostage Freedom Award” in April 2019 after alleged complaints from media figures.
After promising Pompeo the award, the foundation later rescinded it after pressure from media groups that paid up to $50,000 for a table, according to knowledgeable sources who spoke with the Washington Examiner.
