WASHINGTON — At 4:30 in the morning on May 2, Debra and Marc Tice woke up in their Texas home to a phone call from the White House. President Joe Biden wanted to meet them in Washington that afternoon.
It was an opportunity they were not going to miss. Their son, Austin Tice, a journalist and former U.S. Marine, had been abducted in Syria nearly a decade ago. U.S. efforts to locate and bring him home had stalled.
So the Tices hurried to the Oval Office that day. Biden entered the meeting well-briefed, flanked by top national security staff, according to two people in attendance.
