Steve Nikoui’s son, Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, was killed alongside twelve other American service-members outside of Abbey Gate at the Kabul Airport during the Biden administration’s hasty exit of Afghanistan in August 2021.

That’s why Nikoui’s outburst, “Do you remember Abbey Gate,” interrupted the president’s State of the Union address on Thursday, roughly fifty-one minutes through the speech. Nikoui was escorted out, arrested, placed in handcuffs and charged with a misdemeanor that could see him in jail for up to ninety days.

“I remember what set me off,” Nikoui told The Spectator Friday night, in his first interview since his arrest. “When he was talking about kids, in one moment, they’re glorifying these abortions… you know, he aborted my kid by giving him none of the things that he needed to do his job correctly, not listening to any of the advice of the professionals.”

“I said, ‘Do you remember Abbey Gate?’ I believe I said ‘Abbey Gate’ twice,” he recalled. “Then I said his name, and then I said ‘United States Marines,’ and I thought it was important to get Second Battalion, First Marines, so I did all that. I didn’t hear any boos, maybe there was, maybe there wasn’t. I felt like that was a blessing. All of us just ultimately want our country to come together.”