A bloody brawl broke out near the University of California, Berkeley on Monday afternoon, ahead of a Turning Point USA event on campus. It took place just two months after TPUSA s founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated at a campus event in Utah on September 10th.
00:03:32.440I mean, it's actually really interesting because this is one of the first places that we, like, kind of opened up a lot of campus activity on.
00:03:39.820We went right into the belly of the beast about a decade ago, a little more than a decade ago.
00:03:45.080I was privileged to be in charge of our entire field operation at the time.
00:03:51.300And we were really opening up a lot of the West.
00:03:53.220And it just, ever since the very beginning, it's been nothing but crazy at Berkeley.
00:03:58.740So, kicking us off campus, a lot of people don't realize this, but that was one of the first places that we had ever done a real tour stop for Charlie in the early, early days.
00:04:10.380So, we're very familiar with the Berkeley campus, but it's always been very insane, trying to shut down conservatives, trying to dehumanize conservatives every time that we show up.
00:04:22.600And that's been the name of the game, you know, for Antifa and all the radicals that are there.
00:04:50.460I mean, there was literally hundreds and hundreds of radicalized protesters that were outside Antifa.
00:04:57.040It's actually really funny because yesterday I was on with a reporter who was arguing with me about the existence of Antifa.
00:05:05.960She was trying to allege to me, this was a reporter actually in a more conservative state, believe it or not, that Antifa isn't real and doesn't exist.
00:05:15.880And yesterday we saw the congregation of Antifa activists, you know, acting like terrorists that had gotten together.
00:05:47.020They were throwing, like, actually things that were shattering and blowing up and shards of glass everywhere, which was left behind and everywhere.
00:05:56.480There was activists, Antifa activists that were spitting on people directly, right, while they were waiting in line to get in.
00:06:04.160And we're talking about, you know, pretty calm, normal, you know, regular people showing up for this thing, bringing their kids and waiting outside sometimes for hours until the school will actually let them in.
00:06:17.340And essentially what they had to do was, you know, start letting people in.
00:06:21.200But they had an abundance of police resources outside, which they had to do because of how violent and aggressive the Antifa activists were outside.
00:06:32.840But, I mean, yeah, we were looking at some of the videos from y'all's Frontlines coverage with Savannah.
00:07:16.280The entire team at Frontlines is incredible.
00:07:18.700They really go into the belly of the beast everywhere we go.
00:07:21.000So, but, yeah, it's actually a really interesting conversation because you have a couple of different layers here that the public isn't really talking too much about.
00:07:30.760First, you have, you know, the blue cities versus red cities issue, you know, in general.
00:07:37.460And I want to be, like, very clear about this.
00:07:41.540And even the bluest, the bluest cities, you have a dramatic number of police that are conservative, that are, you know, fans, that are supportive of what we do.
00:07:55.900There's obviously always a fraction of police that are probably pretty annoyed about, you know, the danger that's presented mainly by the other side that shows up to these things and causes, you know, tense situations or violent situations like we saw last night in Berkeley.
00:08:14.960And so, obviously, in a city like Berkeley, you're not attracting the most conservative police, I would say.
00:08:21.960I would say there are some people that enjoy, you know, the drama that probably exists around Berkeley's campus.
00:08:28.880But the most important part about the police is that they're always doing their job.
00:08:35.380They're always, they've always been in everywhere that we've gone.
00:08:39.080And I can say this over the years, the decade plus that I've done this, is that we've always had a great response.
00:08:45.840And I think it's only increased over the number of years that they've, I think, police have embraced the fact that this is coming from one side.
00:08:53.300Yeah, that started realizing, oh, my gosh, like, we have to defend, you know, essentially the ideology that they support, which is a more conservative one, because of how crazy and radical the country is getting, you know, under the guise of, you know, BLM or, yeah, you know, the different, the various factions that have been created out of the Soros regimes.
00:09:17.900It's really important to focus on, though, this topic of campus police versus, you know, normal municipal police.
00:09:27.900Campus police is a totally different ballgame.
00:09:30.740And this has come up actually in kind of light of the murder of Charlie, is that campus police sometimes are a different animal to deal with than your normal, regular municipal police.
00:09:44.960And so, again, I don't want to speak directly to, you know, the UVU situation or even Berkeley last night with some of these, because, again, there's a lot of police departments that are on campus that are just trying their best with what they've been given.
00:10:00.700But most of these departments have to report to the administration rather than to, you know, the infrastructure that's normally funded and ran by taxpayers within a municipality.
00:10:16.980And that's actually a real problem when you talk about safety and public safety, because when police are answering to the university system and what their end goals are, sometimes bad results happen.
00:10:30.480And, again, I don't want to point directly to Charlie's murder on that, but, you know, there are some things that could have been done and should have been done to prevent his assassination that I think that a larger police department would be able to handle.
00:10:48.580Now, given that fact, sometimes there's police departments that are smaller in the city where the university is, and the university actually has a bigger police presence than the rest of the city.
00:11:01.240But those are all things that need to be looked at and talked about and debated.
00:11:06.200And, you know, there should be some introspection, especially following Charlie's death, especially when you look at last night, you know, Blue City, you know, relatively small city, big college campus, you know, is safety priority number one?
00:11:23.240Yeah, I mean, I've spot checked Berkeley is like if you look at, you know, the New York Times does the precinct voting map and you can like check and see how many people in each precinct voted for what.
00:11:31.960And if you spot check Berkeley, it's actually something wild to do at home is almost there's a good chunk of the precincts that the Green Party receive more votes than Trump.
00:11:40.700So you guys really went into the belly of the beast here.
00:11:45.220Obviously, you know, you talked about the relationship with the with the campus police, municipal police.
00:11:50.020What about the locals? I mean, I imagine you guys probably weren't able to get out and about that much.
00:11:54.600But was the response from the locals as hostile as, you know, obviously probably not anything close to Antifa.
00:12:02.000But was there a degree of hostility with the locals?
00:12:04.340Yeah, I mean, the most severely leftist college campus, you know, just to kind of give everybody an idea, the most severe leftist areas are pretty radicalized, you know, with the common folk.
00:12:21.720It's actually hard to comprehend for a lot of people that go into these places.
00:12:25.600So Berkeley is a good example of one, UC Boulder, University of Colorado Boulder, or CU Boulder, I'm sorry, it's not UC Boulder.
00:12:36.560CU Boulder is another good example of that. UW-Madison is a really good example of that.
00:12:43.260I've walked the streets of most of these places where we've done events.
00:12:47.840And even just last year, again, I'll kind of point to Madison.
00:12:50.660You walk around some of these communities, and you're kind of expecting just people to be a little bit more normal, a little bit more common sense.
00:12:57.980It's actually bizarre how prepared the community is to be anti-whatever's going on, if that makes sense.
00:13:08.040It's almost like the community rallies behind and creates the animosity that is basically okayed for like an Antifa violent situation to happen.
00:13:20.460And I think that that's really the story when you see all these crazy things happen.
00:13:25.820We saw it in Minneapolis. We've seen it in Philadelphia. We've seen it in Portland.
00:13:29.820You saw what happened last night in Berkeley.
00:13:33.380A lot of that is on the shoulders of the community.
00:13:36.320I mean, that is the reason why it exists is because they feel like they have, you know, the ability to go out and be harassing in that way.
00:13:47.600I mean, like I said, like we were just there last year in Madison with Charlie walking the streets right before a football game.
00:13:57.100You know, so you're, you know, within the college area.
00:14:02.040But, I mean, Madison is largely engulfed in University of Wisconsin culture, and this is the same with Berkeley.
00:14:10.740You walk around that place, I mean, especially with someone with credibility like Charlie had.
00:14:16.000I mean, people were shouting at him like more violently than I've ever seen before.
00:14:20.360People get in your face and kind of almost start pushing you and start, you know, screaming in your face and telling you to go home or get out of their state or do whatever, right?
00:14:32.140And those are just things that you just don't see in more conservative areas ever.
00:14:39.220So I think a lot of people have no clue that this is happening in some of these really deep blue violent cities where violence is being stoked.
00:14:50.880And it's really not being taken care of because I don't think the police really know what to do with it.
00:15:25.260I mean, we've seen obviously, you know, the people with effigies of Charlie's, you know, these really horrible effigies of Charlie and the taunting and these sorts of things.
00:15:34.220I mean, that lead up had to be, you know, pretty intense.
00:15:37.420Yeah, I mean, there was actually flyers being posted all around Berkeley on and off campus.
00:15:44.320We found these off campus as well that said, Berkeley, in the fascist turning point youth oriented campaign of incitement of violence.
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00:17:58.900A single case of this anywhere and they're actually burning things down and, you know, again, you mentioned lighting effigies on fire outside of events, screaming at people with bullhorns in their face as like these sweet mobs with their daughters and kids are walking in.
00:18:18.300And it's unlike anything anyone ever can really comprehend in America.
00:18:24.080Well, I mean, there's something to be said about that, which is, you know, there's all these people on the right that are, you know, like we're these based fringe, you know, radicals or whatever.
00:18:33.860And they're hosting these events or whatever.
00:18:36.440But nothing really agitates the left like Turning Point USA.
00:18:40.800And I think if you drill down on that, the reason is because you guys are the effective ones.
00:18:45.260You're the ones that are stepping into the mainstream, occupying the mainstream and like reorienting.
00:18:50.160I mean, that's that's that was Charlie's legacy is he stepped in and he changed the game.
00:18:55.400And I think that specifically is what animates the leftist so much more than, you know, all these people that are, you know, doing whatever.
00:19:01.760No shade, obviously, but there's something about Turning Point specifically that just infuriates these these these leftists.
00:19:15.660I mean, I think it's effectivity, right?
00:19:17.460I mean, at the end of the day, the left has always kind of especially since the Obama era has dominated this this idea of being able to organize events and get people excited and do things.
00:19:30.560And they've really struggled with that over the course of the last five plus years where they just haven't had excitement.
00:19:48.920And then, you know, you go into covid and, you know, we know all the reasons why, you know, many believe, you know, they really leaned into that and utilize that for their own political benefits.
00:19:59.120But they you know, there was no there hasn't been anyone that's been able to really harness that.
00:20:06.000And I think they came off of this high of Obama having the capacity of doing that to now they're really struggling to consolidate around voices and people.
00:20:18.260And that's the one thing about Charlie that Charlie was able to do as a personality and then transfuse that into an organization and make an organization that we've been you know, I've been blessed to be part of and our group has been working diligently at.
00:20:33.880But that's been part of the effort, which is that it can't just be a person.
00:20:39.680It has to be community that you build.
00:20:41.580And once they see you do that, they start getting very nervous because it's like, well, you know, you know, Charlie's gone.
00:20:48.980Charlie's been assassinated, you know, but they can't assassinate a million small versions of Charlie all over the country, which is what we're seeing.
00:20:56.920Yeah. And this and this is like to your point is like, you know, when you talk about mainstream, we we we and this is not unique or new.
00:21:04.940I've been with Charlie's, you know, for the last 11 years plus years and we have been attacked from both sides.
00:21:13.080Yeah, we we've we felt like we've had people attacking us.
00:21:16.380And the weirdest part is that sometimes it feels like it's simultaneous, where the harder the left is going at us, the harder it's like fringe elements of the right feel like they have gone at us.
00:21:28.400And, you know, people trying to just like get cheap shots and things like that.
00:21:32.820We've seen that all throughout the last decade.
00:21:35.640And you're seeing a little bit of that now where there are people like trying to really attack.
00:21:42.000I mean, we've seen this with with pretty sick attacks on us and Erica and so many and not to bring that in.
00:21:48.160But I think part of that's the element of when you see some of those left wing insane things happening, like we saw last night, you also get elements.
00:21:57.840And actually, that's what's pretty much the catalyst to reaffirm that we're we're pretty much in the mainstream, pretty much the middle of the road when it comes to how things are going in America and at least where the movement is.
00:22:13.020And again, those things actually make the left more nervous because they start going, oh, wow, that's really that that really is the middle of the road for conservative thought.
00:22:23.020And they're actually attracting more people.
00:22:25.900Yeah, I mean, that's that's exactly right.
00:22:28.340And that's I think that's what infuriates a lot of these more fringe elements you're talking about.
00:22:31.780And it's certainly infuriates leftists is that you guys are just able to just so effective as an organization.
00:22:36.820And again, like as a testament to Charlie, but the whole organization as a as a whole is that you're just single handedly able to move the Overton window as in.
00:22:46.440And yeah, that's got to be petrifying if you're a leftist, especially watching you guys roll up to Berkeley right into the belly of the beast.
00:22:55.900There's two elements that is like we haven't really feared going into those places.
00:23:00.200And again, I'm not trying to disparage any other elements of the conservative movement, but the conservative movement in the recent history, you know, kind of prior to the Trump era was very scared to go into the belly of the beast.
00:23:12.960They were very scared to fight the battles on the front lines.
00:23:15.920And that's just there's that's this not a way to to win a war like you have to go to the front lines, you have to send your best soldiers to the front, you have to send your most emphatic, most patriotic, most passionate people to lead the charge.
00:23:32.840I mean, that's like the George Washingtonian model, which is like you've got to have a leader out front.
00:23:37.360And if you're not doing that on the front lines where you're the battles, actually the lines are drawn, then you're not going to be able to win because they're going to keep taking and you're going to keep seeding ground.
00:23:46.780They're going to keep taking ground and you're going to have to have alternative ways to win that war.
00:23:51.080And the truth of the matter is, the conservative movement just wasn't doing that.
00:23:55.060And part of the reason why I believe where we are today, where we're actually being able to win some battles is because we we actually took up those those fights on the front lines.
00:24:05.020And, you know, that's why we call our our division front lines that that SAV runs and and they do such a good job is because we want to be at those places so America could actually see us.
00:24:15.940Imagine a world in which nobody actually saw any of this content.
00:24:37.740I mean, that's what's so refreshing about this is it feels like there's this this affliction or tendency on the right at large where people just say, oh, well, it's California.
00:25:20.240Well, there's more places than just college campuses for this, too.
00:25:23.940I mean, this is this is probably probably the biggest problem within the conservative movement in general is that that the generation of my parents generation.
00:25:34.660And again, this isn't an attack on Gen Xers, but Gen Xers weren't hyper politically motivated.
00:25:59.520You know, you have kind of the hippie, you know, situation that is kind of similar to a lot of millennials that like hippies and hipsters share a lot of similarities with environmentalism and anti-war and all this, which is I think is kind of turn what we saw, like in the early 80s in particular, that started that the whole yuppie movement through through the 90s.
00:26:28.160Yeah, 80s is you are starting to see a lot of that with our own generation.
00:26:32.660You know, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.
00:26:35.420You have a lot of yuppie type mentality that's happening out of millennials now where you're seeing people actually take on their parents' businesses and actually start families later in life because they got started late and they're starting to figure out like, oh, well, some of these things that I was living weren't exactly helping my life.
00:26:53.780And now I'm buckled in and focused on that.
00:26:57.040And so you have a lot of that that's happening.
00:27:00.220And so the conflict that's happening with young people in particular is that they're figuring this out, but it's not just on college campuses now.
00:27:06.540Now it's spread to the church culture, like in the communities that they're moving out to.
00:27:11.580So a lot are moving out of the city and even out of the suburbs and some more rural suburban areas or more rural areas, and they're taking on their businesses or they're moving into, you know, gentrified neighborhoods that are taking over the family business.
00:27:25.560That was their dad's or their grandpa's for the last 30 or 40 years.
00:27:30.140And so it's a really unique moment, but it's really important for us to capture that and then say, hey, there's other groups that need to show up and show out in a big way to help support a lot of these activists as they start to age.
00:27:44.760And I brought up Gen Xers for this reason, because a lot of Gen Xers, you know, we're kind of this tail end yuppie dot com boom era people that that they, you know, their activism was listening to Rush Limbaugh.
00:27:57.700And they listened to it, but they didn't they didn't go out and do something.
00:28:02.120And that's that's the big piece is that you have to actually translate that from listening, you know, kind of taking this on, seeing the problems that are happening around you and then going out and doing something.
00:28:12.020And and a lot as a lot of these Gen Xers are starting to retire.
00:28:15.700Yeah. And at a higher rate, it's really important for them to get involved and do a lot more in the community.
00:28:21.300Totally. I mean, yeah, that that mindset is really kind of poisoned the conservative movement.
00:28:25.320So that's when Trump came in. He's actually just like doing things.
00:28:28.100It's blowing the back of people's heads. They can't believe it.
00:28:30.680They're like, well, you can just do that. It's like, yeah, actually, you can.
00:28:33.500If you want if you want to, like, save America, you know, you got your hands dirty a little bit.
00:28:37.160I was going to ask. I mean, I guess this would be the last question.
00:28:39.580We're kind of running out of time here, but the DOJ, well, you know, they probably had their eye on Berkeley, obviously, with this happening.
00:28:47.420Has there been sort of any indication that they're investigating here, that they're taking a look?
00:28:51.500Because, I mean, for a lot of people that just want to go to, you know, see Dr. Frank Turek speak and then they might have to worry about something like this.
00:28:57.720That's got to kind of freak them out a little bit.
00:28:59.260So I was wondering, you know, what turning point, you know, what their relationship with the DOJ has been like with this specific incident.
00:29:05.380Yeah, you know, it's actually been really interesting.
00:29:08.300I actually fielded a call, like I won't say from who, but this morning, early this morning, from someone high up within the administration,
00:29:17.140who was super supportive that they've got our back, that they're doing more to anticipate some of these problems so that I think that the government can actually step in and be more helpful for the safety and protection of people.
00:29:36.240Because I think a lot of people, you know, for us, a lot of times, it's a little bit concerning because we don't really know how bad it's going to be until you show up.
00:29:46.340You know, part of us was that we thought that this would actually be a little bit easier in Berkeley this year, because, you know, mistakenly, because of Charlie's assassination, we thought that, you know, they would probably take a softer approach.
00:29:58.240Which we now know that's the answer is no, these these crazy people exist, and they're going to come at you hard, if not harder than ever before.
00:30:07.260And the DOJ, you know, as we know, are currently spending their time investigating these cells of Antifa activism that's happening.
00:30:17.960And this is the left's new trick is that they're trying to tell people, just as I mentioned, journalists, everyone else, that Antifa doesn't exist, that it's not, you know, a network, that it's just random people showing up at random times.
00:30:32.620This is, in fact, organized criminal activity that's happening in most cases, where they want to harm people, they want to scare people, at a minimum, they want to impede people's civil rights.
00:30:48.360And so the DOJ, especially in the civil rights division, Harmy Dillon is fantastic.
00:30:54.280She's actually from the northern California area.
00:30:57.680So that's, you know, her team has been very, very much interested in going after the individuals who are involved specifically with this case.
00:31:10.720So I think we're going to see some outcomes coming from last night.
00:31:13.160But I also think that we're going to see a lot more anticipation on our side over the course of the next three years, as we see how the reactive will be less reactive and more proactive, that, you know, the federal government's going to go in and help protect the citizens that are just kind of just doing normal, ordinary citizen stuff.
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00:34:55.620And I'm going to get you guys going on the raid.