The official transcript of Joe Biden’s State of the Union address captures in black and white the moment a Gold Star father booed the president and was ejected from the House of Representatives.
‘MISTER. NIKOUI: Remember Abbey Gate », he records, referring to the site of the attack on the Kabul airport that killed 13 Americans when Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan.
‘THE PRESIDENT: Thirty percent, they went up…
‘MISTER. NIKOUI: United States Marines! Kareem Mae’Lee Nikoui!’
What it fails to capture is the family anguish, two sons cut off in their prime, that led the father of a dead Marine to end up handcuffed by Capitol Police and charged with “overcrowding, obstruction or inconvenience.”
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California, one of 13 service members who died during the disastrous 2021 departure from Afghanistan.
Steven Nikoui’s life turned upside down on August 26, 2021. That was the day his son Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui was killed by a suicide bomber who attacked US troops during the chaotic withdrawal ordered by Biden.
He was 20 years old and was born the same year the war in Afghanistan began. And he died with 12 comrades as the latest victims of America’s longest war.
He had only been out of high school for two years.
“They sent my son there as a paper dealer and then they put the Taliban outside to provide security,” Nikoui said at the time.
‘I blame my own military leaders…Biden turned his back. That’s all.’
Biden ignored the advice of surprised generals and allies to go ahead with the evacuation.
Assumptions that the internationally recognized government would survive proved wrong and they suffered defeat after defeat as the Taliban realized their supporters were leaving.
It meant that the armed Taliban closed the capital, Kabul, before the United States could leave.
The result was that American officials had to rely on the militants they fought for 20 years to establish a security cordon around the airport, a cordon that ultimately failed to prevent a lone attacker from detonating his bomb at Abbey Gate, one of busy entry points.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Air Force, a U.S. Marine Corps transport team transfers the remains of Marine Corps Lance Corporal. Kareem M. Nikoui from Norco, California, August 29, 2021 at Dover Air Force Base
Gold Star father Steve Nikoui was removed from President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address for shouting about his son’s death in Afghanistan.
The 51-year-old man was quickly removed from the public gallery and handcuffed.
Dakota Halverson (right) with her mother Shana Chappell
More than 160 Afghans also died.
Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base for a ceremony known as a ‘dignified transfer’ as the American remains were returned home.
And Norco, California, held a ceremony for its fallen son.
A procession of horses and cars followed the flag-draped coffin to a public funeral.
But his mother later described how while the rest of the world moved on, one of his brothers was still struggling.
Dakota Halverson was eight years older than her brother but they had a strong bond, Shana Chappell he told CNNa year after Nikoui’s death.
‘She started expressing that Kareem was really gone, that she just wanted to be with him. And how much she misses him and he loves him,” she said, describing how at one point he slept next to his brother’s grave.
“He would say it bothers him that Kareem is here alone.”
Some 13 U.S. service members were killed in a suicide attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in 2021. A new book reveals that the United States had two opportunities to disrupt the terrorist group behind the attack, but was thwarted by the need to working with the Taliban in the chaotic final days of the withdrawal from Afghanistan
The explosion occurred in front of The Baron hotel, at the Abbey Gate of Kabul airport. Westerners were staying at the hotel before their evacuation flights.
The Americans killed in the explosion were: (from left to right, starting with the top row) Cpl. Daegan W. Page – Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo – Sergeant. Darin T. Hoover – Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza – Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum – Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui – Corporal. Hunter Lopez – Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz – Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss – Corporal. Humberto A. Sánchez – Navy Doctor Maxton W. Soviak – Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola – Sgt. Nicole L. Gee
He took his own life as the first anniversary approached. His body was found in the city’s Pikes Peak Park, where he played with his brother as a child and right in front of the fallen Marine memorial.
“Dakota Halverson was a loving son, brother and friend,” his family wrote in a GoFundme appeal. “Losing her brother almost a year ago has been too much to bear.”
On Thursday, Nikoui was a guest of Rep. Brian Mast at the State of the Union, part of a Republican move to keep up pressure on Biden to give a full accounting for what went wrong in Afghanistan.
He listened to 50 minutes of Biden’s speech before it all became too much to bear.
Nikoui took his stance just after the president said, “To state the obvious, all Americans deserve the freedom to be safe.”
Biden did not mention Afghanistan in the speech.