President Biden said Sunday the United States believes Austin Tice is still alive, echoing comments from the family of the journalist who disappeared 12 years ago in Syria.
“We believe he’s alive. We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet,” Biden told reporters after speaking about the fall of the Assad government in Syria.
Biden said government officials still have to determine where exactly Tice is, but that the administration has “remained committed to returning him to his family.”
Tice family members met with White House and State Department officials in recent days.
Tice is a freelance journalist who disappeared near Damascus in August 2012. A video released weeks after he went missing showed him blindfolded and being held by armed men.
The Tice family has for years put pressure on government officials to bring Austin home, and his mother said at a news conference last week in Washington, D.C., that there was evidence that he was still alive.
“He is being cared for and he is well — we do know that,” Tice’s mother, Debra, said.
