President Barack Obama said in an interview on Tuesday that he ahs had to tell families of dead American hostages like 26-year-old Kayla Mueller that the United States will not pay to ransom their loved one, and it's 'as tough as anything I do.' But the Obama administration's handling of the Bowe Bergdahl saga – attempting, according to a member of Congress, to pay an intermediary for his safe return and then trading five high-value Taliban terrorists for him when that failed – suggests the White House's policy is less than consistent. Obama told Buzzfeed that 'as a general rule, what we don’t want to do is make other American citizens riper targets' for groups like the ISIS terror army by handing over millions of dollars for hostages.
@highlight
The president said Tuesday that the US continues to refuse to pay ransom for hostages held overseas
@highlight
That position may have doomed Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker killed in the custody of the ISIS terror army
@highlight
But a member of Congress insisted in November that the US tried to random Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by paying a middle-man – who then allegedly ran off with the money
@highlight
Obama ultimately made an in-kind payment to the Haqqani network in the form of five high-value Taliban terrorists who were held at Guantanamo
In the aftermath of the Mueller murder at ISIS's hands, Obama cautioned that paying ransoms would mean 'not only are we financing their slaughter of innocent people and strengthening their organization, but we’re actually making @placeholder even greater targets for future kidnappings.'
'It's better to kidnap one person like @placeholder than kidnapping hundreds of useless people,' the commander said.