Gold Star Dad Who Interrupted State of the Union Explains Why He Did It

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Three years of bottled-up emotion burst out during the State of the Union as Steven Nikoui waited for Biden to say his son Kareemโ€™s name.

President Joe Biden had been talking for about an hour when Steven Nikoui began feeling like he was sitting in the Colosseum in the movie โ€œGladiatorโ€ rather than at a State of the Union address.

โ€œTheyโ€™re all sitting in the stands and theyโ€™re looking at the beast down there and theyโ€™re getting amused. And I felt that. I rationalized it like that and I was a little sickened,โ€ Mr. Nikoui said.

โ€œThese people โ€ฆ they wouldnโ€™t even have any of this if it wasnโ€™t for someone like my kid or โ€ฆ any of the others.โ€

He had hoped this would be the day that President Biden would say his sonโ€™s name, Kareem.

But when the president said โ€œAmerica is safer today than when I took office,โ€ the Gold Star father reached a breaking point.

Mr. Nikoui likens the moment as โ€œhaving an out of the body experience.โ€

The anger and grief that had been stewing inside him for three years let loose.

โ€œRemember Abbey Gate! United States Marines! Kareem Mae’Lee Nikoui!โ€

He shouted his sonโ€™s name, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, and the name of the airport gate in Kabul where a suicide bomber killed his son and 12 other U.S. Marines on Aug 26, 2021, during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Then, he was arrested.

Mr. Nikoui, who had been invited to the State of the Union by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a veteran, was escorted out of the House Gallery.

โ€œI did have remorse,โ€ he told The Epoch Times. โ€œI felt ashamed.โ€

Mr. Nikoui said he was placed in handcuffs and escorted to a police substation at the Capitol. There, his mugshot was taken and he was fingerprinted. He said he waived his Miranda Rights.

The officers who arrested him โ€œwere pretty good,โ€ he said, but they gave him an ultimatum: โ€œIf you talk to us, youโ€˜ll be out in an hour. If you donโ€™t talk to us, youโ€™ll go to the DC jail and see the judge in the morning.โ€

He said he was scared to go to jail. He’d never been arrested before.

Byย Alice Giordano

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