Sisolak calls Nye County official’s comments about wife ‘vile’ and ‘racist’

Republican lawmakers condemn the remarks

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John Locher / AP

In this Aug. 28, 2018, file photo, Gov.-elect Steve Sisolak and Kathy Ong meet others at an event in Las Vegas.

Published Mon, Aug 9, 2021 (3:25 p.m.)

Updated Mon, Aug 9, 2021 (8:20 p.m.)

Nye County Commissioner Donna Cox began her inflammatory diatribe by acknowledging that she knew Gov. Steve Sisolak “watches our meetings.”

At the Nye County Commission meeting Tuesday, the Republican commissioner from District 3, which comprises Pahrump, went on to spread conspiracies about COVID-19, calling it a “political virus” in which health care facilities stand to benefit economically by inflating their virus-related statistics, and describing mask mandates as a money maker for some, including Nevada first lady Kathy Sisolak.

“I’m going to tell you all something about the governor, and I have a picture of the governor and his wife in order to prove this,” said Cox, according to a recording of the meeting. “Well, a few months after he won, he married his wife. Now how long he’d known her I have no idea, but she is Chinese. And you put two and two together ... they actually said that her family in China own a company that’s making a lot of money off of this issue. That she’s here in the United States promoting and selling all these masks and emergency equipment and everything, and they’re all being shipped over from China. So that’s why I call it monetarial. Is there any better reason in the world to want to do a mask mandate? That’s a direct conflict of interest. Maybe he should step aside. He shouldn’t be involved in this, and I hope that he is listening to this today.”

Cox didn’t provide evidence or details of the alleged business operation.

It wasn’t clear if the Sisolaks were watching that day, but the comments got back to him. Cox’s accusation was first reported by the Nevada Independent, which Gov. Sisolak linked to in a statement he used today to call on Nevada Republicans to condemn Cox’s “vile” and “blatantly racist” remarks.

Cox on Monday did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment. A Nye County spokesman said he forwarded the inquiry to Cox and the county manager, who also didn't respond.

“I am furious after hearing vile, blatantly racist comments made against my wife — a Nevadan who has dedicated her life to making our state a better place,” Sisolak said in a statement, linking to the story. “There is no room for this type of hateful speech from anyone, especially not from an elected official. Kathy and I, along with so many others, have worked hard to fight back against the anti-Asian racism brought on by misinformation regarding COVID-19, but comments like these only take us backward. They hurt our community, our state, and the ones we love. Now is a time we should be coming together to get us through what has been one of the hardest times for our state, not attacking one another. I urge every Nevada Republican elected official and candidate to join me in calling out this bigotry.”

Nevada Republicans took to Twitter Monday night to condemn Cox.

"We add our voice in support of our native Nevadan first lady Kathy Sisolak," the GOP Assembly caucus wrote in a post. "Hate has no home in Nevada. Assembly Republicans denounce in the strongest sense of the term any prejudice against our Asian American community. They are our friends, family, coworkers and neighbors."

The Republican Senate caucus tweeted: "The recent comments about first lady Kathy Sisolak were hurtful and misleading. Nevadans expect our public officials to conduct themselves at a higher standard. The county commissioner who made the bigoted and disrespectful comments should apologize immediately."

Kathy Sisolak, the former Katherine Won Ong, was born in Ely. She and Sisolak met when he was a Nevada System of Higher Education regent, and they began dating in 2013, marrying weeks after Sisolak won the governor's race in 2018.

Nye County Commission Chairwoman Debra Strickland, who cut Cox off with a “thank you” chuckled as she told her, “It’s passion isn’t it?”

“It’s the truth, it’s what it is,” Cox responded. “We’ve been lied to. This is the truth.”

Strickland did not respond to a request for comment.

The agenda item the Nye County Commission was discussing was to take possible action on whether the jurisdiction was going to modify its mask mandate after Sisolak implemented one.

Nevada is following a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation from last week that everyone in COVID-19 hotspots — which encompass most of Nevada — regardless of vaccine status, should go back to face coverings to stem the spread of the more-transmissible delta variant.

Rural Nye County, with a population of just under 50,000, has reported at least 3,312 cases of the virus, which has killed 111 people since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, state data shows.

One by one, Nye County commissioners heard from constituents, the vast majority of whom spoke out against mask mandates, in public and at schools.

“If we don’t get what we want,” said one resident succinctly, “We’re going to be shopping for new commissioners in 2022.”

“These are not your children,” said another. “They are (our most beloved property), they are not yours.”

“My child, my choice,” said another one to cheers from the crowd. “My body, my choice.”

“People die every day,” a resident said. “This disease is just another disease.”

“We live in an ocean of viruses,” said another. "COVID-19 will pass through us, it will.”

A caller, the single dissenting voice, who was a proponent of implementing the mask mandate, said, “Let’s try it … if the positivity rate goes down, you know it works.”

When the crowd loudly jeered the caller, Commissioner Leo Blundo called for “respect and decorum.”

Blundo went on to say that “we do listen to the public,” noting that it was time to act against vaccine passports and critical race theory, a national GOP talking point about controversial school courses that teach students about systemic racism.

“It is the will of this board,” Blundo said, “that we are against this mask mandate, 100%,” noting that complying is a slippery slope for politicians to declare a mental health pandemic “then come after your guns.”

Then it was Cox’s turn to speak.

“We need to hold the governor responsible for any damages that are done to any child, any adult ... for any of these mandates they put out,” she said that the same needs to apply to employers and private businesses that mandate COVID vaccinations.

She said the board had no authority over mandates at K-12 schools, but that the commissioners support them in calling for an emergency meeting with the school board.

“Someone needs to go forward in your group and demand an emergency meeting to prevent these children from having to start school day one with a mask,” she said.

She said that she knew from the outset of the pandemic that COVID-19 was a political weapon for companies to enrich themselves through “lies” and the government to control the population through fear-mongering.

“I think there’s an ulterior motive to this,” she said, “I don’t think it has anything to do with the government loving the people so much as they want them to be vaccinated and save, save, save. No, it looks like the conspiracy theories that we’ve been fed about, New World Order and Agenda 21, have come to life.”

The conspiracies claim that a cabal of corrupt leaders are set on establishing a global authoritarian government.

But Cox has no ulterior motives, she claimed: "I have no reason to stand up here and say what I say because I’m in my third and last term, I’ve termed out, that was my last election, so I don’t have to be worried about whether someone is going to reelect me or not that forces me to do something I don’t want to do.”

The board killed the agenda item and took no action.

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