Kirk, a self-described free speech advocate and outspoken Christian, rose to national prominence as the co-founder of Turning Point USA, which promotes conservative values on high school and college campuses. He helped mobilize young conservatives on issues, including abortion, LGBTQ rights and DEI policies.
The organization, which once created a website identifying college instructors it claimed discriminated against conservative students, expanded beyond campus activism to become a major engine for Trump’s 2024 campaign.
In the days after Kirk’s death in September, the Trump administration used the killing to justify a crackdown on political dissent.
“What Charlie Kirk and Turning Point has been trying to do isn’t champion free speech or open debate. It’s to try and bully and intimidate people into silence and we won’t accept that,” said Hoku Jeffrey, one of the organizers of Monday’s protests.
Inside a sold-out Zelerbach Hall, a sea of red “Make America Great Again” hats filled the seats. The mood was upbeat as attendees filed in to The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”
“If only we had this kind of security at the border,” joked comedian Joebob Taeliefi, who warmed up the crowd and took aim at the “blue-haired” protesters outside.
Before the headliners — actor Rob Schneider and Christian author and activist Frank Turek spoke — Turning Point’s UC Berkeley chapter president, John Paul Leon, led a moment of silence for Kirk. An empty chair on stage bore a white T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Freedom.”
“The sad truth is the left is not your friend,” Leon said during the event. “To all those protesters outside I have one thing to say: It is clear to us which side is winning when your side becomes the violent agitators. When you try to win with force and not reason, you have already lost the intellectual battle. They want to destroy any ounce of conservatism that they can get their filthy paws on.”
While Turning Point supporters said the organization promotes free speech and conservative values, many protesters saw Monday’s event as an affront to human rights.
“I think that it’s more important now than ever for us to be united here as students and really make it absolutely clear that this amount of hate and this rhetoric of destruction and eliminating people’s dignity has no place here in Berkeley,” said Sofia Ruiz, a freshman political science major who joined the protest.
UC Berkeley has experience with protests ignited by incendiary speakers. In 2017, violent protests forced the cancellation of a speech by conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
