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Three Years Later: Gold Star Father Reflects On Afghanistan Debacle, Says Kamala Would Be ‘Way Worse.’
The following is an edited transcript of an interview between Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley and Gold Star father Steve Nikoui whose son was killed during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan on Morning Wire.
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JOHN: We are joined now by Gold Star father Steve Nikoui. Steve, thank you for joining us. Today is obviously a sad day for you. This is an anniversary that the Biden administration would like to not remember. President Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery today to honor the 13 soldiers – one of them, your son, Kareem – who were killed at Abbey Gate. How do you feel about the fact that that ceremony took place and that President Trump was there?
STEVE: Yeah, thank you. The fact that it took place in and of itself was a miracle because that is the only time that any president — or prior president or anybody high up in the executive branch — that’s ever paid any respects to our kids. So by him going there, it means a lot, because he’s the first one that’s done it in the three years. And for it to be President Trump, that’s even bigger because he’s been an advocate for us and he’s been there for us since we started going to Washington and in June of last year. Everything that’s come out of Afghanistan is because of the Gold Star parents who press members of Congress. Darrell Issa, Chairman McCaul, letting them know what they didn’t know, what they didn’t hear in the public, what they wouldn’t hear from anyone else. And they would hear our stories, which are the truth, and they’d be like, “You are crazy, I can’t believe this.” And that’s what led to all of these investigations. So, since August last year, President Trump, right after we spoke at Congress on the 29th, he invited us up to Bedminster and he said he solidified his commitment to helping us and we’ve been to several rallies. We’ve had a few roundtables talking about this, and he’s been our champion the whole way.
JOHN: You famously were arrested at the State of the Union earlier this year for calling out, “Remember Abbey Gate.” You were arrested at that moment. The D.C. AG decided to not pursue charges, thankfully. Have you had any further response from the White House – any more transparency offered since that moment?
STEVE: No. No. And what I said at, at there was, I said, “Do you remember Abbey Gate? And then I said, “United States Marines Corps.” And then I said my son’s name, which was Kareem M. Nikoui. And then I said “2nd Battalion, 1st Marine,” which was his unit. And no, I had not gotten – they wouldn’t want to talk to me. They didn’t reach out to me. The Sergeant of Arms knew I was a Gold Star father from Afghanistan, saw me when I was pulled out of row 7 in the hallway, saw me there, after they took me down in the basement. He followed me down, and basically gave, as I recall, a thumbs down to the Capitol Police, meaning “arrest him.” So he fully knew who I was, and intentionally and deliberately arrested me. And their premise was that I resisted arrest and if you’re arrested, they either paper it or they don’t paper it. Alright, and if they don’t paper it, that means that they’re not going to press charges. I didn’t find out I wasn’t papered until the day of my court. I called up for a Zoom call to the courthouse in Washington, D. C., and waited to get my name, kept waiting, and finally said, “Alright, these names are not going to be papered,” and my name was called. So not only they didn’t want to press charges, but they made sure that sting, that hurt lasted and impacted as much as it could. They arrested me – the president could’ve brought me in a back room, you know, said, “Hey, what are your grievances, what’s going on?” Instead, they arrest me. And they couldn’t have arrested me because they had no grounds, because they said I was resisting arrest, but when you look at the videos, I walked to them. I had never had contact with them before. So they intentionally did that just to hurt me as much as they could. And then to add insult to injury, they had no intentions on ever papering it, but waited the whole three weeks until my court case came up for them to let me know that it wasn’t going to be papered.
JOHN: Now, President Biden infamously said that no troops had died under his watch during the presidential debate that ended up being the nail on the coffin of his attempt at a second term. What was your response to those comments from Biden?
STEVE: You know what? I’m glad he said that because, just as you said, that was a nail in the coffin that ended his second presidential term. And it wasn’t anything surprising – that’s what we’ve heard and that’s what we’ve dealt with for the last three years. So for me, that was like every day, but to the rest of America, for them to finally see what we had been talking about and letting people know what has been going on for America to see that was huge because finally they’re like, all right, they’re right. He does deny their sacrifice and their service, and once again he was able to honor his son there. So I don’t know if he uses his platform just to honor Beau, who died while he was a lawyer wearing a suit and tie every day, as opposed to my son, who was a combat ready Marine, ready to fight, who was going through SIV applicants in handling people that weren’t able to cross the line and take them back over. So that was the way it is.
JOHN: Now, President Biden did just tweet out the names of the Fallen Soldiers from Abbey Gate. What’s your response to that? Does that help at all? How does that make you feel?
STEVE: Look, it does help. I’m not gonna sit here and ridicule him. He finally did it. I’m getting goosebumps and I’m glad he did it and he did the right thing. If that’s what he did, then even more so we won, right? Because that’s all I wanted at the State of the Union – for my kid’s name to be said there. It didn’t matter if it was him or whoever. My kid’s name was said, and for him to finally, after three years, to say my son’s name, that’s a victory for me. I’m not gonna downplay it or say it’s too much, too little, too late. He did it, and I appreciate that, but I wish he would have done it on his first State of the Union. I wish he would have done it the very first night that this happened, and then the course of history would have changed – I mean, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
JOHN: Kamala Harris is now the Democratic presidential nominee. Do you feel any more confident that she might show more respect for or appreciation of the military than President Biden?
STEVE: Oh, absolutely not. She won’t show any respect for the military because she hasn’t done anything. She hasn’t shown it yet. Those aren’t in her interest. There’s the same person who, a couple months after, I remember she was busing in child actors, and setting up what looked like kids that had won their way to go to the White House to speak with the vice president, which also was all just staged. They bussed in child actors and all the questions that they had were not organic questions from young kids that had won a way to go to the White House and talk to the vice president. It was all staged and scripted. And that’s what they do. I don’t even know if she’s in control of anything or if she’s just a puppet. But she doesn’t do any interviews, so that tells us that she doesn’t have any real policy, she doesn’t discuss any policy. It’s just a lot of showboating and salesmanship on her speeches and everything. So no, I think it would even be worse. I think whoever was driving the Biden administration is definitely going to be driving the Kamala Harris administration – and I think it would be way worse.
JOHN: One of the lines of attack from Democrats against President Trump is that he supposedly disrespected the military at one point. What have you seen from him in terms of his approach to people who have served and are currently serving?
STEVE: I’ve heard these things, but you know what, I take it with a grain of salt because I also heard about Russiagate and I heard about the things that happened in his impeachment, and from my experience – being a Gold Star father – none of that matters. Donald J. Trump was the only one who last August 30th took us to Bedminster – the President of the United States, which is the highest government official. He was the only one that ever honored us and listened to us and let us talk about our kids individually with him, and promised, “I’m gonna be here for you when I get in the White House. We’re gonna honor him the right way, we’re gonna honor him at the White House.” And it wasn’t something that he said. And now remember, last August, he was not a popular guy. This was literally like three days after he got arrested. His mugshot that came out. The media didn’t even think that he was going to be a challenge to running in 2024 at that point. They thought that all these court cases and jail and the mugshot would do him in. But he was there for us, and he’s like, “Hey, when I get back in the White House, I’m going to honor your kids at the White House.” He says, “Hey, you know, here, Bedminster is beautiful and I could take you to Mar-a-Lago, but this needs to be done in the White House.” And that was awesome. So he invited us for the last year. “Any rallies that you want to go to, just let us know. We’ll fly you there.” It’s unimaginable to have a president be so invested in the people like that. It’s unimaginable. I saw him, I talked to him and met with him, a week before he got shot in Pennsylvania, at Temple University. He did a rally out there, invited us out there. I had a picture of my son. He signed it, I asked him to sign it. It was one week before he had that – and, man, just unwavering, everything he told us a year earlier, the same thing: “I’m here for you. It’s a travesty what happened. Let’s just keep the fight.” So, yeah, that hasn’t been my experience at all.
JOHN: One more question: What would you like people to think about, to remember on this infamous anniversary of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Abbey Gate?
STEVE: You know, I want people to remember that our lifestyle is not free. Policemen and firemen are great, but they protect us from each other. Our military protects us from the world, and we wouldn’t be able to have anything that we have if it wasn’t for our military. And we’re at the lowest enlistment rate that we’ve ever been at – and that’s because of what happened in Afghanistan, and what happened in the rest of the world from Afghanistan, like Ukraine and, and, and Israel, and what’s going on with Hezbollah. This all stems from the weakness of our withdrawal from Afghanistan. We showed weakness, the world takes over, and profits off that weakness. So that’s the first thing, I want them to know that. Look, this is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is an American issue, and we need enlisted soldiers, one. And then, two, to think about the things that these kids see and to think about the 22 service members that commit suicide every day. A lot of kids saw horrible things over there at Abbey Gate. And they’re alive, and a lot of them are committing suicide because they can’t reconcile what they’ve seen and what they’ve witnessed and then come back over here into society and try to fit in. So I think probably the most important thing is the enlistment numbers and the suicide numbers. Somehow we’ve got to work through these two.
JOHN: Thank you for being such a powerful, passionate voice on this. And thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.
STEVE: Oh, thank you, man. I appreciate you.
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