(Congressional Agenda) – A Gold Star father who was removed from the State of the Union address during President Joe Biden’s speech last Thursday and taken into police custody sat down for an interview on Monday. Steve Nikoui’s son, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, passed away during the summer of 2021 along with a dozen other service men and women as Biden attempted to yank troops from Afghanistan, a move that was an utter disaster from the very beginning.
“Kareem Nikoui and the others died during a suicide attack at the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. In a matter of just days, two decades of fighting the Taliban were wiped out when the fundamentalist Islamic group seized back control of the country. The only difference between the Taliban’s second stint leading Afghanistan from its first was that in 2021, the group was armed with countless pieces of military equipment that Biden’s Pentagon ordered to be left behind,” The Western Journal noted.
Nikoui, who is still deeply in mourning over the loss of his child, was invited to come to the State of the Union address by GOP Rep. Brian Mast of Florida. During the speech, Nikoui shouted, which led to his removal from the event and his spending some brief time behind bars.
Mast went on to tell the folks at WBPF-TV that he was “infuriated” to see security remove Nikoui from the event. Nikoui himself shed some light on the speech and his arrest to the Daily Wire.
“It was an awkward dynamic,” Nikoui went on to say of attending the speech. “I wanted to go, but I also didn’t want to go. And when I was there, seeing the theatrics, the circus … it just got to me.”
During the speech, one of Biden’s claims got to Nikoui and he began crying. He recounted Biden stating, “America is safer today than when I took office,” which led to Nikoui saying to himself, “Do you remember that my kid was not safe?”
BIDEN: "America is safer today than when I took office!"
Biden gets immediately heckled from the gallery afterwards.#SOTU pic.twitter.com/3BGGNguO6c
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 8, 2024
It was then that Nikoui felt his voice had to be heard, so he began heckling the president, saying, “Do you remember Abbey Gate? U.S. Marines?” The man says he regrets nothing.
“He said he first became enraged during last year’s annual address from Biden when the president did not mention the names of those killed during the withdrawal but instead spoke of his late son Beau Biden,” The Western Journal reported.
“I remember I watched for like 56 minutes,” the emotional father remarked during his interview. “And then finally [Biden] brings up Afghanistan. But he never said my kid’s name, you know? I didn’t even need him to say he made a mistake or take blame.”
The grieving father asserted that he firmly believes if Biden had followed the exit plan left behind by former President Donald Trump, his son would not have died that day in Afghanistan. However, while he is clearly very angry with Biden, Nikoui proclaimed he’s a man of faith and has forgiven the president for what he did.
“Even if Biden is the man who I believe killed my kid, for lack of a better phrase, my religion commands me that I have to forgive him,” Nikoui explained. He then declared that he stands by his choice to speak up.
“I don’t think I disrespected anyone,” the emotional father opined. “I don’t think I dishonored my son.”
Here’s a statement on the incident from the U.S. Capitol Police:
“Last night at approximately 10:15 p.m., a man disrupted the State of the Union Address by yelling. Our officers warned him to stop and when he did not, the man was removed from the House Galleries and was arrested for D.C. Code § 22–1307 – Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding. Disrupting the Congress and demonstrating in the Congressional Buildings is illegal. The man has been identified as 51-year old Steven K. Nikoui.”
Copyright 2024. CongressionalAgenda.com
I agree that Mr. Nikoui needed to be removed, since he continued to cry out after being warned, I think given the circumstances he should not have been arrested, but perhaps barred from being in The Capital again. He’s a grieving father and I understand his level of grief and his expression. How can a parent, and others who were booing, just sit there and listen to what they perceived as a lie “our country is safer now”, etc.
Hopefully, Mr. Steven K. Nikoui can take solace knowing that his son is with our Lord. I’m not convinced that biden/obama will hear ‘good and faithful servant’ from our Lord.
My heart went out to that Father.
I was absolutely shocked at the way he was so roughly manhandled and taken out of the room in handcuffs.
Now, I learn that they put him behind bars!!
Why didn’t others speak up for him right then and there and offer him protection?
What has happened to this beautiful country?
Better men would have said, “Let him be!” “Let us take a moment to remember his son.”
My own father was killed in WWII; I felt that father’s pain.
The home of the brave–now a place where fathers of sons lost in the war are treated with such disrespect. His boy very likely would still be alive today if Mr. Trump’s plan had been followed. This father’s grief and pain are totally understandable.
The least we could have done was say a prayer for him–that is something we can still do and pray that GOD would make us more sensitive to other’s suffering in the future.