Republicans decry arrest of Gold Star father for heckling Biden at State of the Union

GOP lawmakers are defending the Gold Star father arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday for heckling President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address. 

Police say that Steve Nikoui, 51, was arrested for violating the D.C. Code after continuing to yell at the president despite officers warning him to stop. His son, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, was one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in an ISIS-K bombing during the American withdrawal from Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26, 2021.

“This is a routine charge on Capitol Hill. People who illegally demonstrate/disrupt Congress typically are released after they pay a $50 fine, so the misdemeanor charge is resolved without going to court,” a Capitol Police spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.

A man shouts as he interrupts President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Thursday March 7, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Nikoui was at the address as the guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), who criticized the president after the arrest.

“Steve Nikoui, the father of fallen Marine LCpl. Kareem Nikoui, was my guest to [the SOTU address],” Mast wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “He was arrested because he cried out to [Biden] to remember his son.”

“Joe Biden has never honored those killed at the Abbey Gate and still hails the catastrophic withdrawal as a success!” he added.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), meanwhile, told reporters on Thursday that Nikoui warned him in advance that he planned to heckle the president during the address. He also urged authorities to drop the “petty” charges.

“I talked to Steve prior to his announcement on the floor. I said, look, ‘This is between you and your God and your conscience and your son and the other families,” McCaul said. “I think they feel that their children have been completely, you know, blown off by this administration. The president’s never called to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ And that is why he spoke up.”

McCaul said he “didn’t encourage him to” go through with the heckling.

“He resisted arrest, and I get that,” he explained. “I was a federal prosecutor many years, but in this type of case, I mean, the charges seem a little overbearing given the fact this is a man who lost his son in Abbey Gate to the bombing in a really screwed up situation.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) wrote on X, “This Gold Star father – Steve Nikoui – lost his son Kareem Nikoui at Abbey Gate Afghanistan. Then Kareem’s older brother committed suicide over the loss. To this day, Biden has never apologized or said Kareem’s name in public.

“And Steve was ARRESTED for demanding Biden do so at SOTU,” he added. “Seriously?”

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The service members were killed when an ISIS-K terrorist carried out a suicide bombing outside the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. About 170 Afghan civilians were killed in addition to the 13 U.S. troops.

The bombing occurred as U.S. forces were carrying out mass evacuations for Americans and vulnerable Afghan allies. The Taliban overthrew the U.S.-backed government and its U.S.-trained military less than two weeks before the bombing, which prompted the Biden administration to announce noncombatant evacuation operations.

Mike Brest and Rachel Schilke contributed to this report.