It's over about a hundred million dollars probably that estimatedly probably owed to contractors on this project. One contractor may be anywhere from 40 to $50 million. Another contractor told me they're owed $100,000. Another one told me they owe $4 million.
So we have over 10 contractors that are being hurt and crippled by this particular project.
So that is Omar Sharif. He is the president of the African American Contractors Association, and he's commenting on how much they're owed from the Obama library bill that was unveiled yesterday that was four years late and way over budget, almost double the budget they intended. For $300 million, it's up over $850 million. Michael Dorgan joins us now. He's been on this story, Fox News Digital Reporter.
Michael, great to see you. Thanks for having me, Brian. I think the final bill is going to go well over $1 billion. That $850 million figure has been there since 2021, and we haven't got an updated figure since. What's the delay?
I spoke to several subcontractors. I was in Chicago two weeks ago and they told me that the place, the work site was totally chaotic. There was just over-regulation, too many people there asking them to do too many things that weren't in line with specifications. And a two-year job turned into a five-year job for a lot of these subcontractors. And a lot of them now are...
face financial ruin. A lot of them are owed millions of dollars for this project. And a lot of them are minorities, right? Yeah, several. You had Omar Sharif on there.
I spoke to Omar when I was outside the centre and he's an advocate for these black-owned subcontractors and they're afraid to speak out. A lot of them have signed non-disclosure agreements so they can't go public. They can't reveal any documentation. I spoke to one. He didn't want to go public.
He said he's owed $2.5 million and he said he'd be happy to walk away with $1 million. But his business has been around for 40 years. He feels he's financially crushed. And we found that with several other subcontractors. contractors Well, here's more.
Cut 38. We thought it would be an excellent project for them to work on, but we find out it's a very shameful project for them because we have not gotten paid and they should pay us as they celebrate with their celebrities today. And they had Bruce Springsteen there, they had Bono there, they had Oprah there, Tom Hanks, who is the who-who of celebrities, who have had nothing to do because Joe Biden was basically a corpse when he was in the Oval Office. And now this is the time to show up and look back at his eight years. What else do you think was noteworthy about the event?
A lot of billionaires there yesterday, Brian. They could pay all these guys. Yeah. And it's the little guy that's getting crushed. You know, this was supposed to uplift the minority community, the local contractors.
What struck me yesterday was some of the framing about what the center is going to be. It's been promoted since day one as a presidential library. It is not a presidential library. Obama's documents will not be there. They're going to be off-site.
You're going to have The fortified structure, which is the museum, that's going to be a museum, but it's also going to be the home of the Obama Foundation. And the Obama Foundation is what pushes, that keeps Obama's influence going. And that's significant because this site, this is public land. This is Jackson Park. This is the central...
That's a controversy too, isn't it? Several court cases were filed against this that violated what's called the public trust doctrine, that public spaces must be used for public purposes. And what we have here is Obama got this land, 19.3 acres, massive site, for $10 for 99 years. And it was supposed to be a presidential library. And it sort of evolved into a presidential center.
And yet he still doesn't have enough money to pay the people. Doesn't have enough money to pay the people. And he also got the public infrastructure built around the center paid for by the city, the taxpayer, the Chicago taxpayer, and the Illinois taxpayer.
So a lot of people feel, and you were in the neighborhood, that if you upgrade the neighborhood, you push a lot of people out. Did people get pushed out? A lot of people are telling me that their rent is going up and a lot of Airbnbs are bringing up property prices, property taxes. I'm not sure if anyone has been pushed out yet, but some people are looking to get compensated. They're looking for $4 million spread across the neighborhood for gentrification purposes.
And there's like hotels being planned to build there.
So this is a working-class community that is going to be at some stage outpriced. And the reason why a lot of these people are coming up is because they sign an NDA. They're not allowed to talk. They're afraid of getting sued, even though they're short and they're about to go bankrupt. Here's Dr.
Aliyah Israel. Cut 40. I don't mean no harm. It's nothing personal. It's business.
You know, we love Obama. We helped to get him elected. We loved them before the nation even knew about them. But if people are misusing his name, now I'm not saying he knows about it, but if people are misusing his name, then we have to come and say what? Justice for the Obama Builders.
People have put their lives on the line just to be a part of history.
So he was willing to speak out. Why? Yeah. He's not directly related to the build. The subcontractors are afraid to speak out.
It's a Democratic stronghold, as you know. And Obama was the first black president. And if they speak out, they're going to violate these NDAs. They've all been muzzled. And when I went down there, there was a wall of silence.
You could feel it there. No one wanted to talk to you. Omar rang me at the last minute on a Friday, wanting to do an interview, that it was one of the subcontractors put me in touch with him. They're all afraid to speak out.
So, what is your impression of where this is going? Are they going to take it on the chin? I mean, can't they see a lawyer and say, look, I have to be able to fight back. I have to be able to get paid. And if that becomes public, I'm not a violation of NDA.
If I take you to court and I have an NDA, you still rob me of my $4 million. See, they're in a hole because they're owed money, and litigating against this is going to cost them money as well.
So that's why the subcontractor I spoke to you about was willing to take $1 million.
So he was willing to take a $1.5 million hit on the job. Has President Obama been confronted on this? Any of the Obama constitutional? Not yet. We just broke the story yesterday.
I've been on it for a while, but we just broke the story yesterday because these guys only started to speak out recently. Because they felt if the center gets opened, they think now it's going to be harder for them to get paid once the doors open. What was the delay? We could only speculate.
So, what was happening was a lot of change orders were happening. Mike Owen, who I spoke to, he's a plumbing contractor, he's $4 million in Dred. He had built this stormwater system at the center. It runs next to a lagoon, so it could see a lot of flooding. He put the system in.
An architect or an engineer came back to him and said, You did it wrong. You weren't following code. Mike said he did follow code, but he'll fix it anyway.
So he fixed it, $900,000 of cost. And he went to the inspector, and the inspector said the way you did it the first time was correct. And he went away and fixed it. On instruction, and now he still can't get paid that $900,000, which he contacted me about nearly 18 months ago.
So, what was it? Were you there yesterday? Wasn't there yesterday? I was there last week.
So, w would you project that this is going to be a big tourist attraction? I spoke to people outside last week, and of course, they're Democrats. They're very happy with it. It promotes Obama's legacy. Have you walked it?
I walked it, yeah. But I didn't get into the museum. It was they had soft opening events two weeks ago. It's a nice, expansive place. You can walk out there.
It's kind of parkland, but the building itself is. It's controversial, let's say the least. The museum is a big granite concrete structure and it's just hard, it sticks out. If you compare it with President Trump's range for his, it's going to be a big shiny tower like the One World Trade Center down in Miami, completely different.
So I guess it's whatever taste budgets you had, but it wouldn't be my cup of tea for sure.
So he took shots, yes. He's a great speaker. Michelle did a great job. And it was just time for your family and friends, I thought, and your supporters, especially the people that put you in office. But he didn't waste any time going after Trump.
Listen, cut 29. In the newly independent United States, there will be no kings or lords, no serfs or subjects, but only citizens. Economic disruptions, mass protests, Backlash against mass protests. political conflicts that have shaken the very foundation of our democracy. The good Reverend was under no illusions about the perils and obstacles facing the abolitionist cause.
Same spirit that will see America and the world through its present tracks.
So is there any of your takeaway from that? Yeah, it's very politically charged. And this again, this goes back to the initial controversy. It's public land supposed to be for public use, and now it's been run by a private foundation, Obama's foundation. NARA, which oversees all the presidential libraries, won't be there.
So Obama has got this plot of land that he can push his own influence, his own ideology on. And just to let you know, this is what he said yesterday. For while our work is non-partisan, we are not values neutral. We have a point of view.
So what's he going to be pushing at this on this At this foundation, at this centre for the next couple of years, it's going to promote himself, his influence. Is Michelle going to run for office? Is this going to be a headquarters for the Obama Foundation?
Well, I have to see.
So, the other big story that you're working on is a DSA and the infiltration of this DSA into the Democratic cause. Who's financing this move? There's nothing attractive about socialism, but yet now it is beginning to sell and they're beginning to make progress on the left. Yeah, so we at Fox News Digital have been doing some deep investigations into this money network or what it's called. It's this foreign malign influence that's coming from China.
Azra Nomani, who's our senior investigations editor, has done Trojan work on all this for the last couple of years, really. And she was able to piece together over 700 non-profit groups that are funding all these left-wing protests. We've been out at these left-wing protests. There's all these various non-profits there, and it's all being funneled. A lot of it has been funneled from an American tycoon who lives in China.
His name is Neville Roy Singham. And he's been funding, he's a billionaire, and he's been funding a lot of these left-wing groups. Not in Hong Kong. No, this is Shanghai.
So this is pretty amazing. And they say that he's really thought this through, and it's hard for us to get to him. You can't have a foreign entity paying for an American political system. That's what Code Blue is being investigated for, taking foreign money.
So why is the DSA allowed to take foreign money where it had not been found out yet? I think federal authorities are looking into this, and he's on their radar, but I think it's a matter of time, but we could see some action fairly soon. All right, we'll be able to follow that on Fox Digital. Fox News Digital, yeah. All right, Michael Dorgan, great work on the true story behind the Obama library.
They can't do anything without controversy. You can find it on Fox News Digital. Thanks, Michael. Thanks, Brian.
