'White supremacist goblin': Berkeley politician pens scathing rejection to Tucker Carlson

Berkeley city councilmember and UC Berkeley alum Rigel Robinson was invited on Thursday to appear on Tucker Carlson's show and responded by calling the cable news host a "white supremacist goblin." Berkeley city councilmember and UC Berkeley alum Rigel Robinson was invited on Thursday to appear on Tucker Carlson's show and responded by calling the cable news host a "white supremacist goblin." Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close 'White supremacist goblin': Berkeley politician pens scathing rejection to Tucker Carlson 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

Berkeley city councilmember Rigel Robinson was invited on Thursday to appear on Tucker Carlson's show — and responded by calling the cable news host a "white supremacist goblin."

Robinson shared a screenshot of an email exchange with Chelsea Gilman, a booker for "Tucker Carlson Tonight." She was reaching out to him to see if he would appear on the show to discuss the city's decision to eliminate all gendered pronouns from the city's code and replace gender-specific language with gender-neutral language.

He was a co-sponsor of an ordinance to rename the piece of infrastructure, along with councilmembers Cheryl Davila, Ben Bartlett and Lori Droste.

"We are interested in hearing more about how this came to be and how the community is responding," Gilman wrote in the email.

Robinson, a UC Berkeley grad who became the youngest person ever elected to Berkeley's city council, was nice enough at the beginning of his response to Gilman, thanking her for reaching out to him.

"Unfortunately I won't be able to come on the show," he wrote.

But his reason for not appearing on the show turned into a massive criticism of the Fox News star.

"Tucker Carlson is a dangerous, xenophobic, racist, white supremacist goblin who I am not interested in engaging with," he wrote.

Robinson was much more understated in what he wrote on Twitter along with a screenshot of the exchange. "I'm good, actually," he wrote.

"A man after my own heart. Great work," wrote State Sen. Scott Weiner in a comment on Robinsons's tweet.

Drew Costley is an SFGATE editorial assistant. Email: drew.costley@sfgate.com | Twitter: @drewcostley