A D.C. lawmaker has apologized amid fallout from a social media post blaming snowfall in Washington on the Rothschild family, a well-known Jewish banking dynasty.
Council member Trayon White Sr. issued an apology Sunday, saying he works hard to combat prejudice of all kinds and “never [wanted] to offend anyone, especially with Anti-Semitic remarks.”
“I want to apologize to the Jewish community and anyone I have offended,” he tweeted. “The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people.”
I really do apologize. I work very closely with the Jewish community and never want to offend anyone, especially with Anti-Semitic remarks. pic.twitter.com/TvUgf55UeF
— Trayon White (@trayonwhite) March 19, 2018
White drew the ire of Jewish groups and fellow lawmakers after he posted a video echoing a longstanding anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Jews manipulating the weather and other events for their advantage. The clip, first reported by the Washington Post, shows the councilman driving through snowfall in the nation’s capital.
“Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” White says in the footage. “…And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that is a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”
White’s ramblings can be attributed to long-held conspiracies regarding the Rothschilds, a famous European business dynasty descended from an 18th century Jewish banker named Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the Washington Post explained. The family’s great fortune has made them the target of several outlandish theories, many of which are anti-Semitic.
“I did not intend to be anti-Semitic, and I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues,” White wrote in his apology. “I am committed to figuring out ways [to] continue to be allies with them and others.”
