Charges Dropped Against Gold Star Father Who Interrupted Biden Speech
A Gold Star father who interrupted President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech earlier this month was cleared after originally facing charges for his statement. The move came after Steve Nikoui received considerable support from military families and from conservative politicians.
Washington D.C. Attorney Gen. Brian Schwalb (D) announced that the charges against Nikoui for his interruption had been dropped.
Nikoui made the statement as Biden discussed crime rates, shouting “United States Marines” and the site in which his son Kareem Nikoui was killed in a suicide bombing during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Gold Star father attended the event as a guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) and was removed by U.S. Capitol Police following the incident. Police said in a statement that “disrupting the Congress and demonstrating in Congressional Buildings is illegal.”
The attorney general’s office said that the decision was made based on precedent of not prosecuting protesters.
Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) said that he was “glad the D.C. Attorney General dropped these ludicrous charges against Gold Star father Steve Nikoui after my hearing on President Biden’s deadly Afghanistan withdrawal.”
NEW: Chairman McCaul: “I am glad the D.C. Attorney General dropped these ludicrous charges against Gold Star father Steve Nikoui after my hearing on President Biden’s deadly Afghanistan withdrawal. The President has yet to apologize to families like Steve's who lost loved ones in…
— Jerry Dunleavy 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) March 20, 2024
“The President has yet to apologize to families like Steve’s who lost loved ones in the terrorist bombing at Abbey Gate. These families deserve justice, not prosecution and persecution,” said McCaul.
Following the arrest, Nikoui was joined by a number of military families, including others who lost loved ones in Afghanistan.
Mast wrote after the arrest that Nikoui was arrested because he “cried out” for the president to “remember his son.”
“Joe Biden has never honored those killed at the Abby Gate and still hails the catastrophic withdrawal as a success!” he wrote.
“To this day, Biden has never apologized or said Kareem’s name in public,” wrote Rep. Mike Walz (R-FL) after the arrest. “And Steve was ARRESTED for demanding Biden do so at SOTU. Seriously?”
He posted a photo of himself with the Gold Star father smiling.
