Insulting Nevada’s integrity is no way for Trump to earn our vote

According to former President Donald Trump, the people of Nevada are “disgraceful” and corrupt cheaters.

“This is a state that is disgraceful,” Trump told the Nevada Globe in response to a question about how he could win in the Silver State.

“We had a lawsuit that was so good and the judge didn’t want to see it. He didn’t even want to see it,” Trump continued. “They used COVID to cheat the last time. They used COVID to cheat.”

Never mind that the judge in Trump’s 2020 lawsuit allowed the Trump team to present its case before determining that there was “no credible or reliable evidence that the 2020 general election in Nevada was affected by fraud.”

The Trump campaign appealed the decision, and the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the lower court’s ruling. The Supreme Court noted in its decision that, despite Trump’s claims, there had been no improper “admission or rejection of evidence by the district court.”

Three years later, the twice-impeached and twice-indicted former president is desperately trying to win back the White House and escape the legal quagmire in which he finds himself. But the same arrogance, ignorance and hubris that landed him in legal hot water in the first place cannot help him escape. He reeks of desperation that has reached such heights that he’s turning on his own election-denying allies.

In the same interview with the Globe, Trump described his fanboy and former Nevada Attorney General, Adam Laxalt, as a “stiff” and a “terrible attorney” who “didn’t do his job” in fighting the widespread election fraud that Trump alleged but could never prove.

That’s funny given that just two years ago, Trump described Laxalt in social media posts as someone who “fought valiantly against the Election Fraud” and earned Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement! (sic)”

Trump also berated his own attorney general, William Barr, in the Globe interview. He described Barr as a “coward” and a “stiff.”

Perhaps that was because, despite Barr’s best efforts to shield the president who appointed him, Trump’s judgment is so poor that Barr was forced to pursue multiple criminal charges against high-level advisers within the Trump administration and campaign.

Ten former high-level advisers, including Trump’s former national security adviser, White House chief strategist, campaign chair and deputy campaign chair, pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes while Trump was still in office — years before President Joe Biden or Attorney General Merrick Garland had any authority over the Department of Justice.

Ever the scoundrel, Trump undermined his own Justice Department’s hard work by pardoning his friends and political allies before leaving office.

Now, Nevada has drawn Trump’s ire. We didn’t vote for him in the past two elections so instead of trying to earn our votes through honest conversations and strong policy proposals, Trump has turned to insulting the hard-working people of our state by calling us disgraceful cheats.

Fortunately, Nevada is a state that was conceived as an oasis in the harsh and unforgiving Mojave. We are more than a battleground state, we are a battle-born state created as a Civil War threatened to tear the country apart and end the great American experiment.

Nevadans value independence, freedom and agency in our lives. We have built our economy on the backbreaking labor of miners, farmers and hospitality workers alike. The silver for the spoon Trump was born with was probably mined right here.

We are far from disgraceful and we do not take kindly to being insulted by anyone, let alone an entitled swindler.

We will show Trump exactly how “disgraceful” we are in the 2024 election, when we reject him, his extremism and his dishonesty, and reveal him for the perpetual loser that he is.

In the meantime, Gov. Joe Lombardo, who proudly shared a stage with Trump and accepted his endorsement last year, has some explaining to do. As does Rep. Mark Amodei, who has been a steadfast Trump supporter for almost a decade. Despite having nearly a week to respond, both men have thus far been silent on Trump’s trashing of the Silver State.

If our Republican governor won't stand up for his state’s integrity out of fear of a fool like Trump, it says a lot about his diminished character and his unwillingness to put the people of Nevada ahead of his own political ambitions.

Jim Marchant, another Trump lackey who tried to overthrow the results of the 2024 election and is now seeking to replace Jacky Rosen in the U.S. Senate, has also been silent.Mr. Marchant, does your character allow you to throw your state under the bus to lick Trump’s boots?

Voters should remember these men when it comes time to return to the voting booth for another free and fair election.

Nevada’s elected officials should represent Nevadans, not blowhards who hurl insults at our state.