The mother of journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker that a video of fellow missing American Travis Timmerman wandering the streets of Damascus is “like having a rehearsal” for the day her son is found safe.
Tice, previously a U.S. Marine Corps officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was reporting as a freelance journalist from inside Syria during the country’s civil war when he stopped tweeting in August 2012. A month later a video of a blindfolded Tice was released; since he escaped in early 2013, no information about his whereabouts has been released. In May 2024, President Biden said Tice is still a hostage in the country.
“So, when I go to sleep, I silence my phone and I really go to sleep. My children don’t do that. So, my oldest daughter came into my room at 4:25, and said, ‘Mom, you know, we have this video. You need to look at it. We don’t think it’s Austin, but a lot of people think it’s Austin, so we want you to look and see if it’s Austin,’” Debra Tice explained. “And, you know, I’m kind of waking up out of the fog, and you know, I took a glance and I said, ‘No, that is not Austin.’”
“She said, ‘Yeah, no, no, Mom, it’s not Austin, but we had to wake you up. We had to – we had to ask you about it.’ And then, of course, we had so many people reaching out. ‘This is so great. What a wonderful day.’ And so, it’s almost like having a rehearsal, you know, a – like just an inkling of what it’s going to really feel like when it is Austin walking free.”
Debra Tice added that she “has no doubt” her son is still alive. At present, the Biden administration doesn’t appear to have U.S. officials in Damascus who are looking for Tice. “Richard Engel is there. Other journalists are there. Hostage Aid Worldwide is there,” she said. “They are determined to be looking. They are going into the cells. They’re going into some really deep and dark places. And obviously they are compelled to be there, and the U.S. government is not.”
On Dec. 8, the fall of Assad’s regime in Syria, Biden told reporters at the White House, “We are mindful that there are Americans in Syria, including those who reside there, as well as Austin Tice, who was taken captive more than 12 years ago. We remain committed to returning him to his family.”
Trimmerman, who went missing after he crossed the border from Lebanon into Syria in May, was identified in a video that circulated Thursday.
You can watch the interview with Debra Tice in the video above.
