WASHINGTON, D.C. – Steve Nikoui is a Gold Star father who was invited to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. He took the opportunity to shout criticisms at Biden and wound up arrested, according to reports.
Nikoui, 51, who attended the speech at the invitation of Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), began hollering as the the president was making the claim that America is safer today than the day he took office.
“America’s safer today than when I took office,” Biden, 81, was in the middle of saying before he was interrupted from the chamber’s balcony.
“Abbey Gate!” Nikoui stood and yelled down at the president. “Second Battalion, First Marines!”
As a result of his heckling, Nikoui was escorted out of the House Galleries after he stood up and began yelling. He was arrested by Capitol police on the misdemeanor charge of Crowding, Obstructing or Incommoding, Fox News reported.
The heckling was a specific reference to an attack at the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan that occurred during the botched withdrawal from the country in 2021.
Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui was killed outside Kabul’s international airport in 2021. (USMC)
As a result of the surprise attack by a suicide bomber, 13 U.S. service members were killed and at least 170 civilians were injured. Nikoui’s son, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, was among the Marines killed in the attack.
Prior to Biden’s speech, two other Gold Star fathers told the New York Post that the president should expect harsh words due to the catastrophe.
“There’s been other people that have confirmed that information that Biden knew — damn good and well — that Afghanistan was going to fall,” said Mark Schmitz, the father of Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, calling the withdrawal “a totally epic screw-up.”
“I suspect tonight, there’s gonna be a lot of heckling,” he said.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said he has been rebuffed by the White House when he’s offered private meetings with several Gold Star families.
Shana Chappell with her sons Kareem Nikoui (right) and Dakota Halverson, who later took his life next to a memorial to his younger sibling, according to the New York Post. (Facebook / Shana Chappell)
Although two federal reports have since faulted the administration for its “abrupt and uncoordinated” pullout, which gave locals the impression the US “was simply handing Afghanistan over to a Taliban government-in-waiting,” no one in particular was held accountable for the service members deaths.
“It’s despicable. I’m not holding my breath at all that we’re gonna get [it],” Schmitz said, according to The Post.
“He didn’t care. And he left all the munitions behind at Bagram [Airfield],” he added, referring to $7 billion worth of US military equipment that was still in Afghanistan when the Taliban was left in charge.
“They have every right to say, ‘Where is that explanation?’” Issa said of the Gold Star families. “‘Where is that apology? Where is the legitimate investigation so it doesn’t happen to somebody else’s family?’
“That’s why we’re honored to have them here. It’s why we want them in the audience,” he added, expressing hope that “by some miracle, [Biden] says something that they feel at least meets them halfway.”
Despite the presence of the bereaved family members, the president failed to mention their sacrifice or any reference to the withdrawal from Afghanistan during his 68-minute speech.
