Heckler disrupts State of the Union with Abbey Gate shout-out
On March 7, Joe Biden gave his State of the Union speech in the House of Representatives chamber. After about an hour, the president of the United States was forced to stop for a moment when a heckler started shouting.
6:07 AM EST, March 8, 2024
"Remember Abbey Gate! US Marines!" the heckler shouted. Then, he was handcuffed and taken away from the speech site. Abbey Gate, to which the man was referencing, was the gate in Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport, where a suicide bombing in 2021 occurred. During the fall of Kabul and the Taliban's power takeover, the citizens of Kabul wanted to evacuate themselves. While crowds of civilians and American soldiers supporting the evacuation stood at Abbey Gate, the bomber detonated an explosive belt, killing at least 183 people, including 13 American soldiers. The Islamic State – Khorasan Province took the responsibility for this attack.
As the New York Times reports, the heckler's name is Steve Nikoui, and he is the 51-year-old father of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, one of the American soldiers who died that day in Kabul. Nikoui attended State of the Union as the guest of Representative Brian Mast, Republican of Florida.
Sources: New York Times, USA Today
