An unidentified person interrupted the State of the Union Thursday shouting, "remember Abbey Gate." The protestor referred to a 2021 suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

Reporting from, ahem, “elsewhere”, identifies the man and states he was arrested.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/08/us-news/heckler-who-shouted-at-biden-during-state-of-the-union-identified-as-gold-star-father/

"Abbey Gate!” Steve Nikoui yelled down at the president. “Second Battalion, First Marines!”

Capitol Police escorted Nikoui, 51, out of the chamber around 10:15 p.m. and took him into custody.

He was charged with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding Congress, a misdemeanor that typically results in the offender’s release after paying a $50 fine.

Nikoui’s son, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, was killed by a suicide bomber outside Kabul’s international airport while trying to process evacuees from the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021."

  • kescusay@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    4 months ago

    I feel bad for the guy. Losing a child is… unthinkable. I don’t believe anyone who has lost a child ever truly recovers. I know the thought of losing my kids just kills me inside. Just thinking about it creates this enormous well of anxiety and just absolute darkness in me.

    But he’s protesting the wrong person. It was Trump who forced the exit from Afghanistan and arranged for the Taliban’s return to power.

    • nac82@lemm.ee
      252·
      4 months ago

      It was Trump who removed us from Afghanistan, it was an enemy militant who killed his son, and it was his son that signed up for the military, so obviously, that is Bidens fault.

      It’s sad his son died, and I’m sure his grief doesn’t follow the rules of logic, but joining the military isn’t just a paycheck.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
    283·
    4 months ago

    Some confusion in the State of the Union thread because what he was yelling was pretty much unintelligible on the live feed.

    If you wanted to know what he was yelling about, welp, here you go!

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
    14·
    4 months ago

    Poor guy, I really feel for him and every other person that didn’t make it back. Afghanistan was a mess and could have been handled better, but getting out of there, fast, was probably for the best.

  • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
    10·
    4 months ago

    Hey, thanks for platforming this guy whom I would have never heard of as being anything more than “voice of loonytunes wacko heckler during speech”

    Now he will be on a talk show circuit

    • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldEnglish
      92·
      4 months ago

      Like it or not, it’s news when someone interrupts the SOTU and has to be forcibly removed. And honestly, it’s fine with me if this guy gets air time. It was a terrible thing, and he has a right to be angry. Hopefully, if this does get more coverage, it will be made clear that Biden isn’t the one culpable - it was more trump than him, and more the Taliban than Trump.