A Democratic lawmaker in Washington, D.C., who once blamed a winter storm on Jewish bankers visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Thursday.
It didn’t go well.
According to The Washington Post, Trayon White Sr., a member of the D.C. Council, and his staff made several unusual observations about the exhibitions. Then, White abruptly left, citing an event he had to attend, only to be spotted later on the sidewalk outside the museum.
During his time inside, White pointed to an image of Nazi stormtroopers surrounding a woman who was wearing a sign that read: “I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew.” He asked Lynn Williams, the museum’s director of leadership programs, if the stormtroopers were “protecting her.”
When told that they were forcing her to march down a street in Norden, Germany, White offered that “marching is a form of protecting.”
“I think they’re humiliating her,” Williams explained, per the Post.
Read the full account of the unusual visit here.
White made headlines last month when he posted a video of himself blaming “the Rothschilds” for late-winter snow in Washington.
“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 said. “And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We 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 wealthy banking family has been the target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories for generations.
White later apologized, reached out to Jews United for Justice and vowed to “continue to be allies” with the Jewish community.
On Thursday, he didn’t mention his visit to the museum on his social media accounts. However, he told the Post he planned to return.
“This opportunity has given me the chance to meet a lot of great Jews, a lot of people. A lot of good Jews that I’ve never had the chance to meet before,” White said after a long silence. “It’s an awesome experience.”
The rate of violence against the Jewish community in the United States has soared recently. Last year, anti-Semitic incidents jumped nearly 60 percent, with 1,986 cases over the course of the year, the Anti-Defamation League reported.