Gold Star dad Steven Nikoui gets ‘hero’s welcome’ at pub after heckling Biden at SOTU — as GOP calls on cops to drop charges
Gold Star dad Steven Nikoui got a hero’s welcome at a Washington, DC, pub after being arrested for heckling President Biden over the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan during Thursday night’s State of the Union address
“Steve Nikoui!” other Gold Star families who attended the speech cheered as the man himself strutted into the Dubliner Restaurant blocks away from the US Capitol, following his release from the custody of the House Sergeant at Arms, according to footage shared on X by Spectator journalist Matthew Foldi.
Gold Star father Darin Hoover told The Post in a phone interview on Friday that Nikoui had to pay $50 to get bailed out of the Capitol Police station and is facing “a fine of $500 or 90 days in jail or both” in an upcoming court date.
“He was taken out in handcuffs,” Hoover said. “And so we all sat there and waited and waited and waited — and gave him a hero’s welcome when he came in.”
“If you know Steve, he’s a very Christian man,” he added, mentioning that Nikoui had his Bible with him when he was arrested. “He’d been thinking about it, and it’s been bugging him for a while because we haven’t gotten any of those answers … still nothing two and a half years later.”
House Republicans who invited the relatives of the fallen troops immediately called on local authorities to drop charges, with Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) offering to pay any related fines.
Nikoui’s son, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, was one of 13 US service members killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, as Kabul fell to the Taliban.
Hoover, whose son, Marine Staff Sg. Darin “Taylor” Hoover was also killed in the blast, wrapped Nikoui in a big bear hug as he entered the Irish pub and said, “I’m so proud of you.”
“Jesus would like to talk to you, sir,” added Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, as he offered Nikoui his Bible back.
“We’re going to make you a shirt that says, ‘Jesus spoke to me, and I got arrested,’” said Alicia Lopez, the mother of Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, another victim of the bombing.
“Convict! Let’s just call him convict from now on,” joked Cheryl Juel, the aunt of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee.
It’s unclear whether Nikoui believed his outburst toward Biden, 81, in the middle of the State of the Union was a kind of divine intervention.
“Your pastor is calling too,” added Coral Brisneo, the mother of Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez.
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) invited Nikoui to the speech and later secured his release after the father was arrested for erupting at the commander-in-chief in the middle of his address to Congress.
“To state the obvious, all Americans deserve the freedom to be safe, and America’s safer today than when I took office,” Biden said, beginning to discuss a drop in the US murder rate before he was halted by shouts from the balcony.
“Abbey Gate!” Nikoui screamed at the president, referring to the place of his son’s death at the airport. The grieving father then called out his son’s name and regiment. “Second Battalion! First Marines!”
Capitol Police immediately arrested Nikoui for crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, a misdemeanor that typically results in the offender’s release after paying a $50 fine.
“Escorting from the room, that’s fine. But to arrest him? Come on, that was a little bit much,” Hoover said.
Another State of the Union guest was escorted out for questioning the Palestinian death toll in Gaza while Biden was speaking.
Neither the Sergeant at Arms nor Capitol Police immediately responded to a request for comment.
“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 committed 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.”
Hoover and Schmitz told The Post in an interview before Biden’s speech that the president should expect “a lot of heckling” for the hasty military withdrawal, which also left hundreds of US citizens behind.
“There’s been other people that have confirmed that information that Biden knew — damn good and well — that Afghanistan was going to fall,” Schmitz said, calling the pullout “a totally epic screw-up.”
Neither the president nor his administration have accepted full responsibility for the disaster, both said.
“He didn’t care. And he left all the munitions behind at Bagram [Airfield],” Schimtz added, referring to $7 billion worth of US military equipment that the Taliban seized after ascending to power.
Biden’s approval rating has remained underwater since August 2021, when the last US flights departed Kabul.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found in a February 2023 report that the Biden administration’s “abrupt and uncoordinated” gave locals the impression the US “was simply handing Afghanistan over to a Taliban government-in-waiting.”
A State Department report in June of that year revealed that the administration also failed to take seriously the concerns of the Afghan government at the time amid warnings that Kabul would fall if American troops left.
Biden expressed to administration officials in the aftermath that he “didn’t believe anyone had made a mistake,” according to Politico reporter Alexander Ward’s book “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore Foreign Policy After Trump.”
The president met with Gold Star families during the dignified transfer of the fallen soldiers, but Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said private meetings with relatives sought by his office have been ignored.
Issa and Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) also invited several to attend the State of the Union as their guests of honor.
“They have every right to say, ‘Where is that explanation?’” Issa said of the Gold Star families.
“’Where is that apology? Where is the legitimate investigation so it doesn’t happen to somebody else’s family?'”
Hoover said Biden has yet to broach the events of Afghanistan in any State of the Union since 2021.
“Take accountability for your own actions and let’s move forward,” he said when asked what he wanted to tell the president.
“We don’t want another event like this.”
“We’ve lost five more,” Hoover added, mentioning two Navy SEALs who died during a mission in the Red Sea and three more troops who were killed from a drone attack in Jordan.
“Heaven forbid we put boots on the ground in Ukraine or in Gaza,” he said. “We got out of one 20-year war and got the potential of doing two more.”
