GOP Senate candidate Laxalt says Sisolak will 'gaslight' Nevadans about State of the State in Wednesday speech

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EXCLUSIVE: Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt said the state's governor, Steve Sisolak, will try to "gaslight" citizens about the condition of the state's economy and more during his Wednesday State of the State address. 

"He's clearly trying to save his re-election," said Laxalt, a Republican who's running to unseat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.

He added that the off-year State of the State is "just like the impromptu lifting of masks last week that was not based in the data that they used over the last many months to keep us in masks. They went out and lifted it because the polls are against them ad people are tired of it and people want to return to normalcy." 

Former Nevada Attorney General and current GOP U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt waves after speaking during a Donald Trump campaign rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Sept. 20, 2018, in Las Vegas. Trump endorsed Laxalt for Senate last year. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Sisolak's address is set for noon PT, 3 p.m. ET. It will be in Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders, who recently played their first season in front of fans since moving from Oakland, California. 

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Nevada governors normally do not give off-year State of the State speeches. But after the pandemic and as the state's economy gets back to normal, the governor's office said Sisolak, a Democrat, will discuss the economy and how to spend federal money that's flooded the state since the start of the pandemic. 

Education and public safety may also be topics of Sisolak's speech ahead of the state's next legislative session. 

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak provides an update on COVID-19 regulations in Las Vegas on Aug. 16, 2021. Sisolak is giving a State of the State speech in Allegiant Stadium Wednesday.   (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)

But Laxalt says voters shouldn't believe the governor if he tells them the state of the state is good. 

"Both Sisolak and a Catherine Cortez Masto, this is what they're going to do. They're going to try to gaslight Nevadans over the next seven months and tell them that life isn't as bad as they're living today," Laxalt said. "Gov. Sisolak and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto will try to put lipstick on this situation, is that people are living this nightmare every single day in Nevada… And we're experiencing a state that's heading in the wrong direction."

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"We have some of the highest unemployment in America," Laxalt said, attributing that to Democrats' coronavirus policies. "We have still massive job loss. We have small businesses that are still not online and have never come back. Our schools suffered over the last few years with remote learning and kids stuck in masks."

Sisolak told Las Vegas' 8 News Now last week that he removed the mask mandate this month "in consultation with our business community, in consultation with our medical community and advisers and so forth. Cases were dropping." 

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt speaks at his sixth annual Basque Fry on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021, in Gardnerville, Nevada.  (FOX News)

And as Republicans criticized Sisolak for waiting too long to lift the mandate, some Democrats said he did so too early. 

"I'm damned if I did and damned if I didn't when it came to the masks," Sisolak said on 8 News Now. 

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Sisolak also addressed criticism about crime rates in Nevada – which he blamed on Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, a Republican gubernatorial candidate. And he appeared to agree with Republicans who want to break up the Clark County School District partially because of low long it kept schools closed. 

"I think parents would like to see the school district broken up," Sisolak told 8 News Now. 

But Laxalt said voters shouldn't give Democrats another chance at running the state and argued they're responsible for the issues facing Nevadans. 

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"Democrats are masters of blame-shifting when things go wrong. They find other scapegoats, as they did over the last number of years," Laxalt said. "But there is no one to blame but themselves. They own every state office – the legislature assembly and governor's office. And obviously they have the U.S. Senate and the House, and the president."

"It is their failed policies that have led us to this environment. And I think people now are well aware of that," he said.