The District Attorney of Washington, D.C. has dropped the charges against the man who interrupted President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
Steve Nikoui’s son was one of the 13 U.S. Marines who was killed by a suicide bomber during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He attended the March 7 address as a guest of Congressman Brian Mast of Florida and was removed from the House Galleries by Capitol Police.
“America is safer today than when I took office,” said Biden during his speech.
In response. Nickoui stood up and shouted “United States Marines” and “Abbey Gate” – a reference to Aug. 26, 2021 bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. In addition to Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui and the 12 other Marines, 170 Afghan civilians died because of the blast.
Both the D.C. AG’s office and the office of House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed to Fox News on March 19 that the charges against Nickoui had been dropped.
The 51-year-old reportedly paid $50 in bail and was facing a fine of $500, 90 days in jail, or both.
After his arrest, Nickoui was warmly greeted at a pub in Washington, D.C. by other Gold Star families. Spectator journalist Matthew Foldi posted a video to X of the moment, which he described as a hero’s welcome.
“If you know Steve, he’s a very Christian man,” Gold Star father Darin Hoover told The New York Post. “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.”
Former Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, defended Nickoui’s action on March 8.
"As a Gold Star Son myself, I can only imagine the pain he has felt since losing his son in Afghanistan," Phillips wrote on X. "No one should interrupt a State of the Union Address, but if Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn’t arrested for her outbursts, why should he?"
Mast denounced Nickoui’s arrest in a post on X the night of the televised speech.
“The Sergeant at Arms is holding my State of the Union guest for yelling at [Biden] in protest because his son was killed in action at the Abbey Gate due to Biden’s incompetence,” wrote Mast. “So much for the right to petition our government for the redress of grievances.”
The congressman posted a photo with Nikoui before the State of the Union.
“Joe Biden may try to turn the page on Afghanistan after his incompetence cost American lives, but NOT ON MY WATCH,” the congressman wrote in his caption. Mast was a bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan and lost both his legs during the course of his service.
