Slain conservative activist’s Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA traveling rally “American Comeback Tour” is coming to UC Berkeley in just one week, so the university is forced to reconsider security after Kirk’s assassination.
It’s been nearly two months since firebrand conservative crusader Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a campus event in Utah, and of course, the whole Jimmy Kimmel controversy which that begat. Though since the 31-year-old Kirk was killed, his “American Comeback Tour” has continued on various college campuses, often with very big names on stage. And Cal Matters reports that Kirk's tour will make its final stop at UC Berkeley, a week from today, on November 10.
There are obvious security concerns here, and not just because Kirk was assassinated at a similar event on a college campus. After all, this event will be in Berkeley. Suffice to say there have been some pretty raucous demonstrations at UC Berkeley when previous conservative rabble-rousers had speaking engagements there.
Cal Matters points out that next week’s UC Berkeley event will be the Turning Point tour’s first California event since Kirk was assassinated. But very notably, this one will lack the star power of most Turning Point USA events since then. The schedule shows no one the likes of JD Vance, or former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson, who’ve been headlining these rallies in recent weeks. Instead, they are merely stuck with the washed-up Rob Schneider and “Christian apologist speaker” Frank Turek.
That said, the event was scheduled even before Kirk was killed in September. “As I was spreading the word, I got sent the video of the shooting,” Berkeley’s Turning Point USA chapter president John Paul Leon told Cal Matters, describing the day of that shooting. “My first reaction was ‘that has to be AI, no way,’… it was just completely tragic to see.”
UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof would not elaborate on any security measures the university would be taking for this particular event. The Turning Point USA chapter president Leon told Cal Matters that bags would not be allowed into the event.
Though for their part, UC Berkeley Police captain Sabrina Reich said that the campus police department would be “using best practices and in coordination with campus partners,” and that her department will “take whatever measures are deemed necessary to have a safe and successful event.”
But the headliner is just Rob Schneider, and this event might draw only about 300 people. Some progressive campus groups said that they didn’t even plan to bother protesting this thing.
“We don’t feel like it’s worth our energy,” UC Berkeley chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America coalitions chair Leela Mehta-Harwitz told Cal Matters. “Turning Point USA is famous for clip farming. They’re well-known for getting inflammatory clips that deliberately paint left-wing activists in a bad light. We’re not interested in being fodder for their social media cycle and being misrepresented.”
Image: PHOENIX, ARIZONA - SEPTEMBER 18: People visit the makeshift memorial for Charlie Kirk outside the headquarters of Turning Point USA on September 18, 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona. Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on September 10th while speaking at an event for his "American Comeback Tour" at Utah Valley University. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
