ANN ARBOR, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) — The University of Michigan’s board of regents held a special meeting Friday morning and voted to condemn the words of a fellow regent, Ron Weiser. They pressed him to resign, but he refused, leaving the online meeting less than 10 minutes after it started, as another regent took him to task. (See the full video.)
Weiser has been criticized since suggesting to a group of Oakland County Republicans that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson are witches who need to be burned at the stake. He also told the group “assassination” was the only way to get Congressmen Fred Upton and Peter Meijer out of office. After a viral video of his remarks, Weiser made several public and some private apologies.
Friday, Weiser made a brief statement before others regents spoke.
“I take full responsibility for what I said and I am sorry and regret my poorly chosen words that were offhand remarks made at a private Republican Party meeting,” he said. “I agree with part of this resolution, but I will not resign. I pledge to be part of a respectful dialogue going forward and challenge my colleagues and others to do the same. I will not be canceled.”
His fellow regents took issue with the word “canceled.”
Regent Jordan Acker said “accountability is not cancellation and the reason that we are here today is because Regent Ron Weiser refuses to be accountable for his actions.”
Several noted that Weiser took more than a day to begin apologizing, suggesting his initials comments were weak.
Acker, who spoke at length during the meeting, later took to Twitter, writing, “Too often in our society, dehumanizing, violent, and sexist language is a ‘woman’s problem,’ and we require women to carry the burden of responding. In a small way, we did not: it is everyone’s problem, and it is incumbent on men to stand up as well. Period.”
He and several other board members, including chairwoman Denise Illitch, suggested Weiser’s inflammatory remarks were not as offhand as he has indicated, and put UM in what Illitch called “an untenable position.”
Weiser, who started his career as a real-estate developer and founded his own firm, is no stranger to politics or diplomacy. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic from 2001-05 under President George W. Bush, for whom he also worked as a campaign fundraiser. He worked as a fundraiser for the late John McCain’s presidential bid. Weiser’s been active in Michigan politics for years and is currently in his third non-consecutive term as the Michigan Republican Party’s chairman. Elected to the UM Regent seat in 2014, Weiser has a long history of generosity to the school, as noted in his official board biography as well as in comments by Illitch, Acker, and Grand Blanc attorney Michael J. Behm.
“Instead of inciting violence and attempting to intimidate, you should have corrected people’s false beliefs,” Behm said, adding that the job of regent should be apolitical and Weiser’s comments forced the regents into a political situation of having to respond to the outcry they caused.
Behm said he found it ironic the Weiser-endowed Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies has called for an emergency roundtable discussion, set for noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 6 on the topic of “submerging democracy in America.”
“Threatening rhetoric has no place in even the most partisan circumstances,” Regent Richard Bernstein added, “the harm it causes goes far beyond politics,” because “violent misogynistic rhetoric only enables more violent misogynistic behavior.”
Bernstein said this situation reinforces the notion that both words and power matter, and regents are responsible for holding themselves and one another to a high standard for both.
Regent Paul Brown noted that a belief in redemption and forgiveness did not exclude consequences for actions. Several regents noted the case against more than a dozen men charged with a plot to kidnap and possibly kill Whitmer, as well as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Regent Sarah Hubbard said she didn’t approve in any way of Weiser’s comments in reference to any public official.
“As a newly elected official, I expect respect and professionalism when others contact and reference me in my role as regent,” Hubbard said. “Other public officials should expect the same treatment.”
She said she wanted school officials to get back to the business of setting standards of excellence for students.
Hubbard abstained from voting on the resolution, which states in part “while the Board of Regents recognizes that it has no legal authority to remove
Regent Weiser, The Board believes that Regent Weiser should resign his constitutional office as Regent of the University of Michigan; THEREFORE, the members of the Board of Regents condemn in the strongest possible language the behavior of Regent Weiser, his language, and the actions taken therein, and calls on Regent Weiser to resign from the Board of Regents forthwith.”
Illitch noted “hiring a security detail should not be in the job description for public servants, but now? Sadly, it is. That’s because of violent rhetoric and threats, and it has to stop.”
She reminded those present that all the people threatened have families, and many are UM alumni, including Nessel and Upton.
“Here at the UM we should not only condemn these words, but we actually teach our student of the lifetime value of avoiding them,” she said, listing a number of classes related to ethics, diplomacy, apologies, reconciliation, and facilitating dialogue across fault lines, among others.
She repeated comments she made in the wake of the controversy, that Weiser’s “use of violent imagery crossed a line that is inconsistent with what should be our shared values. There should be no place for physical threats by elected or political leaders on our board or in our state.”
The rise of political violence, from threats against Whitmer and other elected officials to the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection which led to the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, and is believed to have influenced the suicides of two other officers shortly after, one from Capitol Police and one from Washington’s Metropolitan Police. The FBI continues making arrests related to the Jan. 6 riot.
But the violence does not appear to be abating. Friday afternoon, a man used a car to ram the north barricade around the U.S. Capitol campus, and then a knife to attack two Capitol police offices patrolling the area. The suspect was shot dead. One officer died; the other was rushed to a nearby hospital, condition unclear as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, April 2, 2021.
