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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n
In the days after Kirk\u2019s death in September, the Trump administration used the killing to justify a crackdown on political dissent<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Charlie Kirk and Turning Point has been trying to do isn\u2019t champion free speech or open debate. It\u2019s to try and bully and intimidate people into silence and we won\u2019t accept that,\u201d said Hoku Jeffrey, one of the organizers of Monday\u2019s protests.<\/p>\n Inside a sold-out Zelerbach Hall, a sea of red \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hats filled the seats. The mood was upbeat as attendees filed in to The Beatles\u2019 \u201cHere Comes the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf only we had this kind of security at the border,\u201d joked comedian Joebob Taeliefi, who warmed up the crowd and took aim at the \u201cblue-haired\u201d protesters outside.<\/p>\n Before the headliners \u2014 actor Rob Schneider and Christian author and activist Frank Turek spoke \u2014 Turning Point\u2019s 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 \u201cFreedom.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe sad truth is the left is not your friend,\u201d Leon said during the event. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n While Turning Point supporters said the organization promotes free speech and conservative values, many protesters saw Monday\u2019s event as an affront to human rights.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that it\u2019s 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\u2019s dignity has no place here in Berkeley,\u201d said Sofia Ruiz, a freshman political science major who joined the protest.<\/p>\n UC Berkeley has experience with protests ignited by incendiary speakers. In 2017, violent protests forced the cancellation<\/a> of a speech by conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/20251110_UCBTURNINGPOINT_GC-32-KQED.jpg\")