The Gold Star father arrested for heckling President Biden at the State of the Union said he still has not had the charges dropped against him — but he’s not standing down from calling out the president for being “100%” at fault for his son’s death.
Steve Nikoui, 51 — who was escorted out of the annual presidential speech after yelling down from the rafters, “Abbey Gate!,” “Second Battalion, First Marines!” — has heard “nothing” from Capitol Police since he was removed from the chambers of the US House of Representatives last week, he told the Daily Mail.
Nikoui — whose son, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, was killed during Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 — had been a guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) at the speech.
He has said he did not intend to interrupt Biden’s address, but became frustrated after the president mentioned slain Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was allegedly killed by an “illegal” immigrant.
Nikoui said was “devastating” that the president mentioned Riley, but has still not spoken about the 13 US service members by a suicide bomber while trying to process evacuees at Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021, Nikoui told the Mail.
“I’ve waited three years, I paid $3,000 and I’ve traveled 3,000 miles to finally hear my son’s name in the State of the Union,” he said.
“That trip to the State of the Union — what a kick in my ass.”
He said he and other Gold Star families who sat through the address just want accountability from the Biden administration for its rushed withdrawal from Afghanistan — and for the president to mention their children’s names.
“Joe Biden, personally, is the reason for that fiasco,” he said. “100%.”
Describing the moment he decided to interrupt the speech, Nikoui said he had been “praying, hoping” that the president might finally mention his son and the others killed in action in Afghanistan.
“And then as soon as he said something about kids and then something about being safe — I don’t even know what I did… I just jumped up and I said, ‘Do you remember Abbey Gate?’” Nikoui told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday, referring to the location of the suicide bombing at the airport.
“It was like the Lord convicted me,” he said.
“The Holy Spirit got in me, and when I did it, I paused, I was like ‘Oh, what did I do?’”
Mast would later help coordinate Nikoui’s release from the custody of the House Sergeant at Arms.
“Mr. Nikoui lost his son due to Joe Biden’s incompetence, and lost another son to grief over his brother being killed,” Mast told The Post in a statement, referring to Dakota Halverson, who died by suicide on Aug. 9, 2022.
“This man and his family have given America more than I could personally bear and to attack him with a BS charge of “demonstrating” is a disgrace.”
Rep. Mike Waltz, another Republican from Florida who once served as an Army Green Beret, also said it “shameful” that Nikoui was arrested.
He noted that the president “has yet to say” the names of the 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing “privately, publicly, in a speech, anywhere.”
“It’s infuriating,” he said.
Nikoui has been charged with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding Congress.
He is due back in court to face the misdemeanor charges against him on March 28.