Biden’s SOTU Marred By Gold Star Father’s Arrest

(WatchDogReport.org) – Gold Star father Steve Nikoui, whose son died in the botched retreat from Afghanistan, has been arrested for interrupting President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address and demanding the president remember his deceased son. Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, 20, was killed in a terrorist attack just outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, on August 26, 2021, as American forces were withdrawing from the country. Steve Nikoui could be heard shouting “Marines!” as Biden discussed foreign policy. U.S. Army veteran and Republican Florida Representative Brian Mast reportedly invited Nikoui as his guest.

Mast stated on X that he was honored to have Nikoui as his guest at the State of the Union Address and vowed that he would not let Biden turn the page on his own “incompetence” in pulling troops out of Afghanistan. One X-user pointed out the hypocrisy in allowing a crowd of “pro-Hamas” protesters to block a motorcade yet arresting the father of a fallen serviceman. Kareem was one of 13 servicemen killed in the terrorist attack, and his brother, Dakota Halverson, committed suicide after grieving for almost a year. Dakota ended his life near the park where he and Kareem played together as children, across the road from the fallen marine’s permanent memorial.

Shana Chappell, the mother of Kareem and Dakota, said she was shocked and asked why Nikoui was arrested for being in the same room as the man responsible for her son’s death. The mother of five said that, were she to face the president, and she would ask him why he still does not say the names of the 13 servicemen killed in the attack.

In a press statement, Mast branded it a “disgrace” that Nikoui was arrested for “demonstrating” when his family had sacrificed more for the country than he could personally bear. Mast reportedly joined Nikoui during his interrogation at the United States Capitol Police headquarters. Chappell said that there is no longer any accountability and supported Nikoui’s plans to heckle Biden and shout his son’s name. She criticized the president over the border crisis and called him a “failure” who is destroying the country. The charges of crowding, obstructing, or incommoding Congress that Nikoui was arrested for typically result in a $50 fine.