WASHINGTON >> Republican Rep. Paul Gosar is suggesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was instigated by “the left” and backed by billionaire George Soros.

The Arizona congressman, in an interview with Vice News, describes the rally’s organizer as “a person from Occupy Wall Street that was an Obama sympathizer.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has described rally organizer Jason Kessler as a “relative newcomer to the white nationalist scene.”

Kessler planned the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. A woman died when a car plowed into counter-protesters at the event.

Gosar also accused Soros of collaborating with Nazis during World War II. A spokesman for Soros’ Open Society Foundation told Vice News that Gosar’s remarks were an “affront to Mr. Soros and his family.”