The event, which was marked by protests, was the final stop on the conservative group’s national tour.
BERKELEY, California — The University of California, Berkeley added to its long history as a hotbed of free speech and liberal activism Monday, when Turning Point USA, the conservative student movement started by Charlie Kirk, ended its national tour with an event on the campus a few months after the assassination of the influential right wing figure.
The night of speeches and Q&A, which drew 900 attendees and at least 150 angry but largely peaceful protesters, closed out the “American Comeback” tour, a cross country road show Kirk launched as part of his group’s broader campaign to infuse American universities with more conservative thought. Kirk was killed two months ago as he spoke during an appearance at Utah Valley University by a gunman who indicated to friends he was angered by Kirk’s stance on trans rights and other issues.
Monday’s setting on a campus that has long been known as a bastion of progressive ideals and causes offered a stark contrast that participants eagerly used as fodder.
Actor and comedian Rob Schneider, the event’s headliner who started his speech by thanking “Antifa for the welcoming,” lamented what he saw as an “intolerant blip” overtaking the Bay Area that he said was underscored by the “goons outside” who “infiltrated academia.”
Andrew Doyle, a speaker who wrote a book titled “Free Speech and Why It Matters,” said he wrote about UC Berkeley as “this bastion of free speech back in 1964” that he did not recognize upon arriving on campus for the event.
“And then I get here and there’s tear gas and fireworks, and I’m thinking, ‘Something’s gone slightly wrong,’” Doyle said.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said police did not use tear gas. He pushed back on the notion that the event could be reduced to a liberal stronghold hosting a group counter to its ideals. Doing so, he said, is “the result of a caricature that’s been around since the 1960s.”
“We believe it’s absolutely essential for a great university to have an open, robust marketplace of ideas,” Mogulof said. “Our clocks didn’t stop in 1964. This is a different university than it was then.”
For decades, the Berkeley campus has been the site of notable student-backed movements, including the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s and protests against bans of affirmative action in the 1980s. Students have also fought against tuition hikes and the university’s investments in weapons manufacturers.
It has also hosted prominent conservative speakers in recent years including Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro, although protests led to the cancellation of an event featuring right wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos in 2017. The following year, the university settled a lawsuit alleging it discriminated against speakers with conservative views. Kirk himself spoke on campus in 2022, but that event drew few protests.
The tone was much different on Monday.
A group of around 100 protestors gathered outside the venue ahead of the event, unscrolling a giant sign that read “TPUSA Out Of The Bay” and accusing Turning Point of seizing on Kirk’s assassination to advance a “fascist movement.” They shouted chants including, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and, “anytime, any place, punch a racist in the face,” and passed out flyers noting racist, homophobic and misogynistic statements Kirk made.
A few blocks away, steps from Sather Gate — a center for activity during the Free Speech Movement — dozens more protesters gathered to chant.
Chase Goldberg, a fourth-year Berkeley student, held up a sign outside the venue reading “We Will Not Comply” with a swastika symbol covering the “O.”
“I’m lucky to be at a campus like UC Berkeley,” Goldberg said. “Because in the same way that Turning Point USA is allowed to be loud and proud, so can I.”
There was at least one fight on the sidewalk outside the venue. A protestor threw a glass bottle that shattered on the ground next to a line of police officers, while another was yanked forcibly by officers past a barricade and led away.
The skirmishes caught the attention of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who posted on social media Tuesday that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force would investigate the “violent riots at UC Berkeley” and that “Antifa is an existential threat to our nation.”
After Bondi’s post, the university released a statement vowing to launch its own investigation into efforts to disrupt the Turning Point event and to cooperate with any federal probe. “There is no place at UC Berkeley for attempts to use violence or intimidation to prevent lawful expression or chill free speech,” the statement said, while also noting that “efforts to prevent last night’s event did not succeed” and that the evening “proceeded safely and without interruption.”
Mogulof said Tuesday that there were two people fighting who were arrested. Two others were arrested on suspicion of disobeying police orders and resisting arrest, while separately a 45-year-old man reported he was struck in the head by a glass bottle or jar. And earlier in the day, four students were arrested on suspicion of vandalism after attempting to hang up art off Sather Gate in protest.
David Cullison, an attendee who graduated from Berkeley in 2014 and now lives in Concord in the East Bay, said as a student he had friends with different political perspectives and called the school a “rich environment for dialogue,” but lamented how “one side’s voice has been stifled.” Cullison said he hoped Turning Point coming to Berkeley may encourage conservative students to be more vocal.
“Those people now have a voice,” Cullison said. “They don’t have to feel afraid to speak up and say what they actually think, because of things like this.”
Attendees waiting in the ticketed area outside of the venue cheered when dozens of police officers descended down the stairs from an adjacent building in response to the growing number of demonstrators approaching the entrance. “Beat them up!” one of them shouted.
Kennedy Luty, an attendee from Hercules, tried to get other Turning Point supporters waiting in line to sing the national anthem in response (they made it to “perilous fight” before petering out). Luty, 28, who said she went to “liberal San Francisco State University,” was grateful that Berkeley hosted the event. After all, she said, Berkeley is the “foundation of free speech.”
“I’m very proud of UC Berkeley for standing on that,” Luty said.