The parents of Kayla Mueller, an ISIS hostage who was killed in 2015 during her imprisonment, said their daughter would be alive today if President Trump had been in office when she was abducted.
“Kayla should be here. If Donald Trump had been president when Kayla was captured, she would be here today,” Carl Mueller said of his daughter.
Marsha Mueller discreetly reached for her husband’s hand as he detailed the painful details of their daughter’s captivity, including torture and repeated rape.
“Kayla was mostly held in a 12-by-12 cell in solitary confinement. It was cold and dirty. ISIS terrorists shined bright lights in her face, they shaved her head, they beat her and tortured her. The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, raped her repeatedly,” Carl Mueller said before launching into an excruciating attack on former President Barack Obama’s handling of the situation.
“For 18 months, she endured, and we endured an agonizing back-and-forth between us, the Obama administration, and ISIS. 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 never heard from Joe Biden. Instead, the Obama administration … showed more concern for terrorists in Guantanamo than the American hostages in Syria. 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. After 18 months of brutal torture, we learned from ISIS that Kayla had been killed.”
Kayla Mueller traveled to Turkey on a humanitarian mission in 2012. She crossed the border into Syria in August 2013 and was kidnapped by ISIS. The terrorist organization claimed she was killed in retaliatory airstrikes conducted by Jordan in 2015. Her body has not been recovered, but the Muellers continue to work to bring her home.
The Muellers thanked Trump for launching a military operation to kill al Baghdadi, who was cornered by special forces operators in 2019 and detonated a suicide bomb. The operation was named Operation Kayla Mueller, in honor of their daughter.
“Under President Trump … special operators conducted a raid on al Baghdadi’s compound. After we learned that al Baghdadi was killed, we learned something else: The operators named themselves Taskforce 8-14, after Aug. 14, Kayla’s birthday. And the mission was named Operation Kayla Mueller. To those soldiers: thank you. Kayla was looking down on you,” Carl Mueller said.
Marsha Mueller went on to explain why she and her husband support Trump.
“Carl and I support Donald 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. That was our daughter. That’s President Trump. As long as we stay strong like Kayla, as long as we refuse to break, we will be great.”
