The father of one of the Marines killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport during President Biden's disastrous evacuation from Afghanistan told Fox News that his outburst at the State of the Union address president last week was not planned and that if the commander in chief -The chief did not want to say his son's name, someone did.
Steve Nikoui said he sat in the State of the Union gallery as a guest of Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., praying that Biden would finally recognize his son's name more than two years after the catastrophic withdrawal.
“I was looking at this sight below me, listening to it and praying, hoping that maybe at some point before this he had mentioned Afghanistan. [and] our kids, because all the Gold Star parents were thinking that might be a possibility, and it wasn't happening,” Nikoui said Monday on “Hannity.”
“And then as soon as he said something about kids and then something about security, I don't even know what I did… I jumped up and said, 'Do you remember Abbey Gate?' – It was like the Lord convicted me. The Holy Spirit came into me and when I did, I paused. I thought, 'Oh, what did I do?'”
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Nikoui was arrested shortly after the outbreak and charged with “obstructing or disturbing the crowd.”
In “Hannity,” Nikoui said after yelling about Abbey Gate, he shouted his son's name and rank, “because I've been waiting three years for this man (Biden) to say my son's name on this camera, and he never did.”
“But on this day, on this day, his name was spoken.”
During the State of the Union, Biden also received criticism for altering the name of Laken Riley, the Georgia student allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant. Instead, Biden referred to her as “Lincoln Riley,” the name of the University of Southern California football coach.
Regarding the servicemen killed during the Afghan withdrawal, Biden also received criticism in the immediate aftermath when he was filmed repeatedly checking his watch as the remains of the fallen were unloaded at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.
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In “Hannity,” Nikoui also criticized two then-senior military officers, now-retired CENTCOM commander Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie and then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, indicating that they will soon testify before Congress about the withdrawal and asking Americans to follow it.
In a news release, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, announced a March 19 hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Nikoui praised McCaul for his attention to Cpl. Nikoui's death and that of the other service members at Abbey Gate, while indicating that four other lawmakers: Mast, Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Michael Waltz, R-Fla. and Cory Mills, R-Fla. – are the “four horsemen” who attempted to draw attention to the loss of life during the evacuation.
Steve Nikoui shouts as US President Joe Biden speaks. (Shawn Thew via Getty)
Along with Nikoui on “Hannity,” Issa also condemned Biden, saying that both he and the corporal's father have publicly spoken the names of the fallen more than their commander in chief.
“One of the reasons there is no closure is that there has never been any real recognition from this president,” Issa said.
Issa criticized Biden for instead invoking the death of his eldest son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, during the State of the Union around the time he got Riley's name wrong.
“He'll talk about Beau's death, but he won't talk about these 13 [servicemembers] or how we prevent this from happening again and again,” Issa said.
Host Sean Hannity also asked Nikoui about the 2022 death of Kareem Nikoui's brother, who, although not a blood relative, had been in Steve Nikoui's life since the boy was a baby.
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Dakota Halverson was “devastated” by the loss of Kareem and took her own life in a California park that would be named for the fallen Marine, Nikoui said.
“It's been devastating for his mother. It's been devastating for his siblings… and the effect of this president. Just like [former Trump speechwriter] “Stephen Miller said, 'This is a reactionary president,'” Nikoui said.
“The poor Riley family is killing my son, they're killing their son. And what are you going to do, America? Are you going to wait until they kill your son? Because you know.” [Biden] “It's a bumper car that hits everything on the way out, and the only ones who are going to be left to pick up the pieces are us.”
In 2022, Cpl. Nikoui was also commemorated through a bill by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., that renamed the post office in the Marine's hometown in his honor.
This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
