A councilmember in Washington, DC, first defended, then apologized for claiming the Jews “control the weather” to bury the city in snow.

Councilmember Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) was caught on video insisting the prominent Jewish Rothschild family has “manipulated” the weather to bring sudden snow to the D.C. area, the Washington Post reported.

“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 is heard saying on the video.

“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 so they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful,” he continued.

The Rothschilds are a European Jewish family famous for generations of financiers and bankers and have been the subject of constant conspiracy theories.

Local Jewish leaders were incensed by the councilman’s comments. Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Temple Micah in Northwest Washington slammed White’s remarks.

“This kind of anti-Semitism is unacceptable in any public official. This so diminishes what America is about and adds to the oppressive feeling going on in the country right now,” Zemel said in a statement. “We all have to be better. Public officials have to learn not to say the first ignorant thing that comes into their head.”

Initially, Councilman White did not understand why anyone would deem his comment anti-semitic. But after consulting with a representative of the Jewish community, White changed his tune.

After the Post published a story revealing what he said, White apologized, saying he is a fast friend of the Jewish community.

“I really do apologize. I work very closely with the Jewish community and never want to offend anyone, especially with Anti-Semitic remarks,” he tweeted on March 18.

“I work hard every day to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended,” White said. “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”:

D.C. Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1) insisted the city should accept Councilman White’s apology, stating it was a “sincere regret.”

“It is my sincere hope that my colleague has learned from this experience,” Nadeau added, “and that together we can serve the diverse people of the District of Columbia with a focus on lifting each other up, rather than tearing one another down.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.