Ron Weiser (U-M photo)
Ron Weiser, who expects to repeat his chairmanship of the Michigan Republican Party, spoke to The Detroit News about the dispute swirling around his actions in recent years, which led to an embarrassing internal party split this week.
Ron Weiser: "I can't do more." (Photo: U-M)
In the paywalled story, Weiser told reporters that "people are angry" and taking it out on him, but maybe not in the way you might think:
He sees the recent attacks as coming from those who don't share his politics and as a reflection of the anger following the Jan. 6 assaults on the U.S. Capitol.
"People are angry, and I am the most accessible target," Weiser told The Detroit News as allegations against him came into light this week and just before Cox's challenge emerged. "(They) have more extreme beliefs than most of the rest of the country has. They are farther to left, and therefore, they are very intolerant of anybody who doesn't believe as they do."
Weiser has said relatively little about the insurrection, perhaps because his running mate for co-chair of the party is Meshawn Maddock, who organized bus caravans to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 and was in the city when the riot occurred. She has said she and her husband, first-term state Rep. Matt Maddock, did not participate in the Capitol invasion.
Weiser, for his part, first claimed to be watching a basketball game instead of the chaos in Washington, but the game wasn't taking place at the time. He then said he was at a dental appointment. He has condemned the attack, but he has not put responsibility for the event on Trump, either. To the News, he expanded on his social-media statements:
"I made my statements about how I felt about what happened," Weiser said. “I thought it was reprehensible, that the people involved should be punished. A lot of people decided to ignore those (statements), and that’s their choice. I didn’t say it quite the way they wanted me to. I made a strong statement and also supported the statement the university made on what happened in Washington. I can’t do more than that.”
The inter-party split has nothing to do with the Capitol riot, but with payments totalling $200,000 that Weiser is said to have directed to Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot, allegedly to withdraw from the 2018 Secretary of State race, in favor of Mary Treder Lang. Weiser claimed the money was paid to Grot for the recruitment of precinct delegates, but another News story points out that other contractors doing similar work were paid far less.
The party's state convention is today.
