Gold Star father Steven Nikoui says charges against him have not been dropped after he was arrested for heckling President Biden during the State of the Union address.
Nikoui, 51, the father of slain Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui shouted ‘Remember the Abbey Gate!’ “United States Navy!” and ‘Abbey Gate!’ from the balcony of the House of Representatives chamber, in the middle of the president’s remarks last Thursday.
His son, Kareem, was killed along with 12 other soldiers by a suicide bomber during the failed 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
After yelling at Biden from the guest seat, Nikoui was removed from the chamber by Capitol Police and later arrested and charged. He has an upcoming court date of March 28.
A week later, he told DailyMail.com that he has heard “nothing” from Capitol Police since his arrest, despite Republican calls to drop his charges.
“I was just strongly convicted by the Holy Spirit to stand up and say that, after sitting there for almost an hour of total disrespect towards us. “He knew there were other Gold Star family members, he could have at least just said their names and that would have happened.”
He called it “devastating” that Biden instead mentioned the name of murdered Georgian student Laken Riley, whom he confused with “Lincoln,” but not the soldiers killed at Abbey Gate.
Gold Star father Steve Nikoui was removed from President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address for shouting about his son’s death in Afghanistan
“I waited three years, I paid $3,000… and I traveled 3,000 miles to finally hear my son’s name in the State of the Union,” he added.
Nikoui says the financial pressure is starting to take its toll on Gold Star families, who have spent thousands of dollars of their own money to continue pushing for accountability from the Biden administration.
“We all spent thousands of dollars on that trip to the State of the Union – what a kick in my a**,” he told DailyMail.com.
‘That cost me three thousand, hotels are really expensive. And then get thrown in jail.”
Fellow Gold Star dad Darin Hoover called Nikoui’s arrest “ridiculous” for being singled out among other troublemakers during the State of the Union.
“The optics don’t look good, that’s for sure,” he told DailyMail.com.
Nikoui said many of the other Gold Star parents will not be able to go to an upcoming March 19 hearing on Capitol Hill with Generals Kenneth McKenzie and Mark Milley.
“Joe Biden is personally the reason for that fiasco,” he told DailyMail.com “100%.”
“I’m angry at Milley and Mackenzie because I think they should have been bold, taken a stand and resigned. Maybe it would have changed the course of history.”
But Nikoui says he just doesn’t have the money to come back for the hearing next week, which is “sad” because many other Gold Star parents are in the same boat.
Video of Nikoui after the State of the Union around 1 a.m. shows him entering an Irish pub to loud applause after the lawmaker who brought him, Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., helped secure his release.
The 51-year-old was quickly removed from the public gallery and placed in handcuffs
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California – one of 13 soldiers killed during the disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan
Soon after, the State of the Union DailyMail.com asked Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a former Army Green Beret, for his reaction to Nikoui’s arrest.
“It’s a shame if he gets arrested,” Waltz said. “I was with all the Gold Star families right before the speech.”
Waltz herself invited Gold Star mother Paula Knauss, who similarly invited her son, Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, after the explosion at the Afghanistan airport.
Knauss said she “almost got kicked out herself” during the speech because she was furious with Biden for not saying her son’s name and not apologizing for the disastrous exodus from Afghanistan.
“He has not yet said those thirteen names, either privately, publicly, in a speech anywhere. It’s infuriating,” Waltz said.