URBANA — Charlie Kirk received a standing ovation as he took the stage at Foellinger Auditorium Tuesday night for his “American Comeback Tour.” The packed crowd was a sea of red, with attendees decked out in Make America Great Again gear and American Comeback shirts.
The tour features stops at colleges across the country, where Kirk provides an open forum to debate students on their political concerns. Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, a non-profit conservative organization dedicated to promoting American patriotism in young people.
The event at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign drew both students and community members. In his opening remarks, Kirk sympathized with Gen Z audience members about what he called a culture war on men. He also said statistically the happiest women are wives and mothers, not CEOs.
The tour is designed to give leftist students a chance to challenge Kirk’s conservative beliefs directly, and encourage an open conversation on the reality of U.S. politics.
The first two students to take the mic admitted their admiration for his work, after which Kirk made a point of encouraging his supporters to yield the mic to anyone in the crowd who disagrees with him.
Later on, Kirk was disrupted by an audience member who yelled out “This is Nazi America,” and performed the Roman salute multiple times. The crowd began to boo the man, before breaking out into a chant of “USA, USA.”
“You want to come up here and talk, tough guy?” Kirk said in response. The man approached the mic and during the exchange, he said, “Mass deportation is just cleansing the land,” to which Kirk responded, “No, it’s not, it’s restoring the law.”
The man challenged Kirk on other issues, including police brutality, saying, “What about the f****** pigs killing people?” to which Kirk responded, “Oh, by pigs, do you mean police?”
The man was eventually escorted out of the auditorium with security.
Other audience members raised the question of abortion. In one long exchange, Kirk compared abortion to the Holocaust.
“To be philosophically consistent, a woman or a man, especially a woman in pregnancy, does not have the right to terminate another human being, whether it is in their utero, their nursery, or their car,” Kirk said.
Kirk also said women should take responsibility for their orgasms.
As he wrapped up the event, Kirk received a standing ovation when he left the stage.
Natalie Hauge, a long-time Kirk supporter, said despite not getting to ask her question, she was pleased with the event.
“I was dreaming so much to see Charlie Kirk, he’s one of my favorite people in any conservative media,” Hauge said. “I was pretty satisfied with my experience, ‘cause it was very interesting to listen to.”
Kirk has six more stops planned for his tour and will be speaking at Purdue next, on Friday.
