It was fine for Democrats in Congress to interrupt President Joe Biden by chanting “Four More Years” repeatedly during the State of the Union on Thursday. In fact, it was welcomed by the president.
But it was not OK for the Steven Nikoui to stand up and yell at the president. He shouted “Abbey Gate” and “United States Marines,” after Biden said the phrase, “America is safer today than when I took office.” Nikoui just couldn’t take the lie and wanted to remind the hall of the site of the 2021 suicide bombing, when 13 US service members were killed during the Biden-ordered chaotic withdrawal.
Nikoui was a guest of Rep. Brian Mast. Florida Rep. Mike Waltz has offered to pay the possible $500 fine.
Nikoui’s son was Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, who died in the 2021 ISIS-K suicide bombing as Biden’s evacuation from Kabul, Afghanistan became a deadly military disaster.
Nikoui was removed from the House floor and taken away in handcuffs during what was described by many observers as Biden’s biggest campaign speech to date.
“The Sergeant at Arms is holding my State of the Union guest for yelling at [Biden] in protest because his son was killed in action at the Abbey Gate due to Biden’s incompetence,” Rep. Brian Mast said in a post on X.
“No one has been fired over the Afghanistan withdrawal that took the lives of 13 servicemembers. Biden refuses to ACKNOWLEDGE the lives of the 13 servicemembers. My guest, a Gold Star family member Steve Nikoui, had ENOUGH of Biden’s BS,” Mast wrote.
Nikoui posted bail and then attended a Gold Star family get-together with others who have lost military family members in war. was greeted with overwhelming support at the Dubliner Restaurant in Washington, D.C. Fellow Gold Star families rallied around Nikoui, and applauded his courage. Gold Star father Darin Hoover detailed Nikoui’s ordeal to the New York Post. “He was taken out in handcuffs,” Hoover told the New York Post. “And so we all sat there and waited and waited and waited — and gave him a hero’s welcome when he came in.”
Republicans have called for the charges to be dismissed.
After the speech, Mast was accosted by members of the radical group Code Pink, who demanded a cease fire in Gaza. Mast asked them if they knew “where we stand on terrorists? We stand on their throats,” he said, and walked away on his two prosthetic legs. During Operation Enduring Freedom in 2010, Mast lost both his legs while serving as a U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician in Afghanistan. Watch the video of that exchange here:
