GOP candidate led the conga line at a maskless party in New York, video shows
A Republican club in New York threw a party in which attendees were spotted not wearing masks and a GOP candidate for city council was filmed leading the conga line.
Inside Il Bacco, an Italian restaurant in Queens that sued to resume indoor dining, Vickie Paladino, Republican candidate for New York City Council in Queens, led the conga line behind a Trump 2020 flag at the party on Dec. 9, The Washington Post reported. Paladino was one of 16 attendees at the event and many were seen maskless in the video of the party posted on Twitter by journalist Matt Binder.
“The Whitestone Republican Club in NYC apparently held a Christmas party this year without a care in the world about COVID,” Binder wrote on Monday.
The party comes as more than 18 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S. as of Tuesday and cases are continuing to climb across the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Queens has more than 7,400 COVID-19 deaths, coming in fourth in the country for the hardest-hit counties for deaths.
In New York City, at least 3,787 cases were confirmed on Tuesday — indicating an 8% increase over a 14-day period, The New York Times reported. At least 38 deaths were also reported on Tuesday, reflecting an 85% rise in deaths over two weeks.
Whitestone Republican Club spokesperson Robert Hornak told Queens Daily Eagle that attendees mostly followed coronavirus rules and that the party was held before there was a ban on indoor dining.
“We held an intimate gathering observing all the COVID guidelines in place at the time,” Hornak said. “Every attendee was told to wear a mask, and everyone had one when entering, or was given one.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo condemned the party when he was asked about it Tuesday.
“I saw the video,” he said, according to CBS News. “COVID conga lines are not smart. That’s my official position. Why you would do an unmasked conga line in the middle of a COVID pandemic — whatever your political persuasion — defies logical explanation as far as I’m concerned.”
Paladino gained notoriety after a viral face-off with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2017 after he spoke at a protest rally in Germany, CBS New York reported. De Blasio spoke hours after NYPD Det. Miosotis Familia was killed, according to the station.
“I want to know why you let your police officers down and our country down by going to Germany and protesting against our country,” Paladino said at the time.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 5:31 PM with the headline "GOP candidate led the conga line at a maskless party in New York, video shows."