A D.C. Council member has apologized for anti-Semitic comments he made Friday suggesting that Jewish financiers control the weather.
D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr., a Democrat, shot a brief Facebook video Friday morning of him driving through downtown Washington as snowflakes fell on his windshield.
“Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” Mr. White said. “And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We’re a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”
The Rothschilds, a European Jewish banking family descended from Mayer Amschel Rothschild, have been the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories for centuries, including that they control the world’s financial institutions and manipulate world events to their benefit.
Mr. White’s clip was deleted from Facebook following public backlash. Reached by The Washington Post to clarify his remarks, Mr. White responded, “The video says what it says.”
On Sunday evening, hours after The Post published its story, the council member apologized to the Jewish community on social media.
“In response to my social media post on Friday, as a leader I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended,” Mr. White wrote. “The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues.”
“I have spoke [sic] to leaders and my friends at Jews United for Justice and they are helping me to understand the history of comments made against Jews and I am committed to figuring out ways continue to be allies with them and others.”
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