No Show Joe Lombardo Ditches Nevada Cyberattack Crisis for the Campaign Trail

No Show Joe Lombardo Ditches Nevada Cyberattack Crisis for the Campaign Trail

News 3 Las Vegas: "Where is Governor Joe Lombardo?"

After a massive cyberattack crippled Nevada's state agencies - shutting down essential services, impacting Labor Day travel, and leading to a partial government shutdown - vulnerable Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo didn't even bother to attend his own press conference on the hack.

No show Joe was too busy hitting the campaign trail to deal with the crisis himself - the latest sign that he will always put his own political ambitions over doing what's right for Nevada.

While Lombardo was off campaigning, he faced a wave of backlash over the long weekend for his lack of leadership in a statewide crisis and the "political fallout" from his lack of transparency.

Here's what Nevadans are saying about Lombardo's lack of leadership:

• News 3 Las Vegas: "There's a protest happening right now in Henderson … Governor Lombardo is at an event here tonight, and that's why they're here to get his attention. They're saying, 'Why wasn't the Governor at the cyberattack press conference yesterday?'"

• Fox Reno: "Thursday's event comes after many Nevadans questioned why the governor was not at the first conference on such an important issue as security and the safety of Nevadans' private data. Gov. Lombardo … didn't feel his presence was necessary at the conference in Carson City."

• Jon Ralston: "So they held a presser on 4-day-old massive hack of NV government, gave almost no new info and the gov was not there: 'During the question portion….state officials would not provide additional facts that were not already stated in prepared remarks.' Not great, Robb!"

• Political scientist Rebecca Gill: "This is a really important thing that people consider when they are thinking about the leadership capabilities of their statewide leaders … part of the job in these leadership positions is to convey, you know, this sense of resilience and to convey capability and empathy - understanding, you know, what people are going through in the middle of some sort of crisis."

• Nevada resident Manuel Santamaria: "He should have been there. It's his priority as the governor of the state of Nevada. This isn't the biggest state in terms of population. You would think that he has enough of his own time to give to everybody. So I believe his excuses were poor. He should always have that in front of mind, right? Always be out front helping the people of Nevada. And he's failed to do that time and time again."

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