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Fact or fiction? Reviewing claims
about Regent Ronald Weiser
Since telling Bridge Michigan
he didn’t know if he blamed former
President Donald Trump for inciting
the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol
last month and that he watched the
Michigan basketball game instead of
the coverage of the riot, University of
Michigan Regent Ronald Weiser (R)
has been subject to a generous amount
of criticism from U-M students and
faculty.
Community members have called
for his resignation in a petition that
has garnered over 4,900 signatures
since Jan. 8. Hundreds of faculty,
staff and students also signed onto an
open letter to Weiser and members
of the University’s administration
demanding he resign. In addition,
the University’s Central Student
Government has discussed a potential
resolution calling for his resignation.
Soon after, emails Weiser sent
to fellow regents and University
President Mark Schlissel requesting
their support amid the backlash came
to light, one of which called on regents
to “remember Germany in the 1930’s.”
Older emails in which he called
Graduate Employees’ Organization
members on strike “union hacks” and
sent only an image of a woman in a
bikini also surfaced.
Various
other
claims
about
Weiser’s relationship to the Michigan
Republican Party, his real estate
holdings in Ann Arbor and his
donations to the University have
also been circulating. Some of these
claims are verifiable while others are
not. The Michigan Daily put together
a guide to what we know to be fact,
what we know to be false and what
cannot be verified.
Did Weiser refuse to condemn
the rioters who stormed the
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021?
After
initially
failing
to
condemn
the
insurrection
in
a Jan. 7 interview with Bridge
Michigan,
Weiser
tweeted
a
statement, writing that he strongly
condemned “those people who
turned into a mob and breached the
capitol after what was supposed to
be a peaceful protest.”
Weiser has since told The
Detroit News he was undergoing
dental surgery at the time of the
riots to explain why he missed
initial coverage. Weiser continued
to condemn the riots in the weeks
following. In a Feb. 8 email to The
Daily, Weiser wrote that he has
“clearly condemned the violence
and the people who perpetrated
it.”
University
spokesman
Rick
Fitzgerald also referred The Daily to
a statement on the insurrection from
the Office of the President, writing that
all of the regents, including Weiser,
support Schlissel’s condemnation of
the pro-Trump rioters.
“Today’s
violence
represents
an assault on our liberty and the
fundamental values of American
democracy,” the statement reads. “We
condemn all those who participate
in or instigate such an attack on our
nation.”
Did Weiser refuse to condemn
former President Donald Trump
for inciting the Jan. 6 violence?
In the same Jan. 7 interview with
Bridge, Weiser answered “I don’t
know,” when asked whether Trump
was responsible for inciting the
violence. Since then, he has yet to name
Trump — or any other individuals —
as responsible for the insurrection.
Trump’s second impeachment trial is
set to begin Tuesday, where he faces
charges of inciting violence at the
Capitol.
In his statement on Twitter
following the publication of the
Bridge article, Weiser referenced yet
did not condemn Trump, writing
“the President said this morning that
a peaceful of power will occur and
therefore the 2020 elections are over.”
Weiser made similar remarks in a
Jan. 9 Twitter thread, stating “People
were misled. And that resulted in
death and destruction” without
naming any party responsible for the
misinformation.
In a Jan. 19 interview with The
Daily, when asked whether Trump
was among those responsible for
inciting the violence, Schlissel also did
not directly say if he thought Trump
held responsibility.
“I chose my words very carefully
on purpose,” Schlissel said. “(It’s) up to
all of us to interpret what’s been going
on publicly and figure out those who
are responsible for inciting violence.”
Does Weiser have ties to the pro-
Trump rioters?
Weiser is the incoming chairman
of the Michigan GOP, which he will
co-chair with Meshawn Maddock,
a 2020 state presidential elector who
worked to overturn Michigan’s 2020
general election results. Maddock
organized buses to transport Michigan
Trump supporters to Washington,
D.C. the day of the insurrection and
at one point marched among them,
according to a tweet from her account
that afternoon. She has since publicly
condemned the violence and claimed
the rally was supposed to be peaceful.
In the early afternoon of Jan. 6
before Trump supporters breached
the U.S. Capitol building, Maddock
tweeted that the rally marching
toward the Capitol was the “most
incredible crowd and sea of people
I’ve ever walked with (heart emoji).”
Weiser told Bridge that he does not
believe Maddock “incited” the violence
and said she watched the chaos of the
riot from her hotel window.
“I don’t believe she was part of
it,” Weiser said. “I don’t believe she
incited it.”
What is Weiser’s relationship to
the Michigan GOP?
On Feb. 6, Weiser was officially
elected chairman of the Michigan GOP,
following last-minute allegations from
the outgoing Chairwoman Laura Cox
that he made undisclosed payments to
urge a Secretary of State candidate to
withdraw, possibly violating campaign
finance law. On Monday, Michigan’s
Bureau of Elections launched an
investigation into these allegations.
Weiser is now the highest-ranking
member in the state party. He was
previously elected to this position in
2009 and 2017, stepping down in 2019
due to health issues.
When asked about the potential
conflict of interest in holding this
position while also serving as a
regent, Fitzgerald wrote holding
both positions is not uncommon
for governing boards at universities
around the state, especially given the
partisan statewide electoral processes
by which regents are selected at the
University and other state institutions.
“Involvement with one political
party or another is typically expected
of candidates for the governing boards
at U-M, MSU and Wayne State, where
board members are nominated by
the political parties and elected on a
statewide ballot,” Fitzgerald wrote.
Weiser also denied there is a
conflict of interest between his
position as a regent in his Feb. 8 email
to The Daily. “The board of regents
is not involved in politics,” Weiser
wrote. “It is involved in the oversight
of the university.”
Currently, no fellow regent holds
a position of equal rank in their
respective state political party, but
other regents have held similar
positions. For instance, before being
elected to the Board of Regents in
2018, Jordan Acker served as deputy
communications director for the
Michigan Democratic Party. He was
also appointed by President Barack
Obama as an attorney-adviser to
Secretary Janet Napolitano at the
Department of Homeland Security in
2011.
How else has Weiser been
involved in Republican politics?
In addition to his history with
the Michigan GOP, Weiser has also
held positions with the national
Republican Party.
From 2011 to 2013, he served as the
Republican National Committee’s
national finance chairman. He
was also one of the vice chairs on
Trump’s finance committee, where
he was tapped to raise money for
Trump’s election in 2016. Outside
of these roles, Weiser has also
been involved in the campaigns
of other prominent Republican
officeholders, including the late U.S.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen.
Susan Collins, R-Maine, and former
President George W. Bush.
Weiser also worked with Betsy
and Dick DeVos — former Trump
education secretary, and Michigan
businessman
and
gubernatorial
candidate, respectively — to pass
Right-to-Work legislation for the state
of Michigan in 2013, which creates
provisions for workers to hold a job
without paying labor union dues.
Is Weiser a major landlord in
Ann Arbor?
Weiser is the founder of McKinley
Associates Inc., a national real estate
company headquartered in Ann
Arbor, from which he got most of
his wealth. The company owns
and/or manages several apartment
complexes in Ann Arbor, as well as
properties around the country valued
in excess of $4.6 billion, according to
the company’s website.
Fitzgerald asserted that Weiser
is no longer active in the company.
Weiser confirmed this in an email
to The Daily, stating he retired from
the company in 2001 as part of the
requirements when he was nominated
by the Bush administration to serve as
U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia.
Does
Weiser’s
real
estate
company profit from University
of Michigan students living on or
near campus?
According to Weiser, McKinley’s
apartments in Ann Arbor are not
within walking distance from Central
Campus and are primarily marketed
as “workforce housing,” which the
company independently confirmed in
an email to The Daily.
Fitzgerald wrote that it is the
University’s
understanding
that
McKinley “does not have significant
holdings near the U-M campus.”
In the Monday email to The Daily,
Weiser wrote that McKinley has “no
undergraduate student housing.”
But the company indicated that
they do lease their properties to
students attending the University
but
also
to
students
from
neighboring
colleges,
including
Concordia,
Eastern
Michigan
University
and
Washtenaw
Community College. This is in
contrast to other Ann Arbor-based
companies like J. Keller Properties
and Campus Realty, which market
themselves as U-M student housing.
Is Weiser a major donor to the
University, in addition to being a
regent?
Weiser and his wife have donated
over $100 million to the University,
making him a prominent donor.
In recent years, the couple has
donated millions toward establishing
the Weiser Diplomacy Center at the
Ford School of Public Policy, which is
now named after the pair, as well as a
real estate center at the Ross School
of Business. Campus buildings such
as Weiser Hall take their name from
the Weiser family.
Did Weiser make a donation to
influence the University’s plans for
the fall semester?
Weiser donated $30 million to
the University a week before the
announcement of the University’s
controversial plans to have an
in-person, “public-health informed”
semester, as an anonymous University
staff member said in an Aug. 27 op-ed.
However,
these
funds
were
specifically designated for diabetes
research, according to MLive. The
Elizabeth Weiser Caswell Diabetes
Institute, funded by the gift, was
named after Weiser’s daughter, whose
husband and children suffer from
Type 1 diabetes.
Over the summer, Weiser stated
that many of his donations to the
University are designated for specific
purposes, such as food allergy
research.
When asked if his personal
donations to the University influence
the Board of Regents’ decisions for the
University community, Weiser denied
the allegation.
“My personal donations do not
influence the regents’ priorities
and decisions for the university
community,” Weiser wrote. “I love
the university. Over the years, I
have contributed or committed
more than $100 million to the
university, everything from student
scholarships to centers for medical
research.”
Board member recently received criticism from some U-M students and faculty
JULIANNA MORANO
Daily Staff Reporter
ADMINISTRATION
MEGAN OCELNIK/Daily
The collection at John K. King Used & Rare Books, located in downtown Detroit, spans over four whole floors in an old industrial building; it is easy to get lost amongst the never-ending shelves.