The Nevada State Democratic Party launched a new digital ad highlighting Joe Lombardo’s absence after the worst cyberattack in state history. While this cyberattack hamstrung emergency services and brought many business operations to a “complete standstill,” Lombardo didn’t even bother to show up to his own press conference on the data breach — instead, attending campaign events.
After widespread backlash, Lombardo held another press conference less than 24 hours later to paper over his absence. He even admitted that this cyberattack is the most serious crisis he’s faced as governor — and yet, he’s held just two public briefings over two weeks.
Nevada State Democratic Party Spokesperson Kate Sosland:
“Again and again, Joe Lombardo is putting his political interests over Nevadans. Addressing the public only after being called out for his absence isn’t real leadership — Nevada deserves better than No Show Joe.”
Transcript:
Lombardo: “This press conference is not intended to address my absence.”
Reporter: “It’s been more than a week since a cyber attack shut down much of Nevada services from drivers licenses to food stamps being put on hold”
Reporter: “Nevada is still recovering from going dark last week after that outage impacted all of the state agencies.”
Reporter: “Nevada is still recovering from going dark last week after that outage impacted all of the state agencies.”
Reporter: “Some services will continue to be unavailable or delayed.”
Reporter: “One of the questions that people have been asking is, where has Governor Lombardo been during the cyber incident?”
Reporter: “They say Lombardo’s inaction is hurting Nevadans who continue to struggle with disrupted access to critical systems.”
Reporter: “Where has Governor Joe Lombardo been during this cyber incident?”
Reporter: “He’s on the campaign trail instead of dealing with a cyber attack.”
Reporter: “At least one of those events may have been a campaign fundraising stop.”
Reporter: “Not only was it yesterday, but this incident happened on Sunday morning, and they didn’t hear from you on Monday or Tuesday either.”
Reporter: “a protest over in Henderson today slamming the governor’s response to the recent cyber attacks”
Reporter: “Why wasn’t the governor at the cyber attack press conference yesterday?”
Reporter: “speaking out against the governor’s absence”
Lombardo: “This press conference is not intended to address my absence.”
Protestor: “He should have been there. It’s his priority as the governor of the state of Nevada.”
Protestor: “He should always have that in front of mind, right? Always be out front helping the people in Nevada, and he’s failed to do that time and time again.”
Lombardo: “This press conference is not intended to address my absence.”
Reporter: “What a mess.”
###
