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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.

