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- Officials in New Jersey and New York have slammed Rep. Matt Gaetz for attending a gala without a mask on Thursday with 150 people gathered nearby at a restaurant.
- New Jersey mayor Steven Fulop closed Maritime Parc, the restaurant that hosted the event, on Friday.
- The event was an annual gala for the New York Young Republicans Club that was originally scheduled to be held at a location in Manhattan, which declined to host the event.
- The governors of New Jersey and New York berated Gaetz for attending the event, with one calling on the Florida representative never to return to New Jersey.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
Officials in New York and New Jersey are concerned that a Republican club held a gala on Thursday with 150 unmasked people in attendance, including Florida Representative Matt Gaetz.
A day after the event, New Jersey Mayor Steven Fulop shut down Maritime Parc, the restaurant that hosted the gala, according to several outlets. Fulop has ordered the restaurant to close indefinitely after photos circulated on social media showing unmasked attendees, including Gaetz, smiling and crowded inside.
The event was an annual gala hosted by the New York Young Republicans Club.
Fulop said the restaurant will remain closed until owners create a workable plan detailing how they will comply with coronavirus restrictions and mandates. The plan must be submitted and reviewed by the state health department.
“In Jersey City, we take the enforcement of Covid very seriously, and this event appears to be a blatant violation of governor’s decrees,” Fulop said. “This event blatantly ignores the protections put in place to protect the community from further contagion and has put Jersey City and countless others at risk.”
The gala took place as New Jersey continues to achieve record rates of positive coronavirus cases.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy criticized Gaetz immediately after the event.
“It is irrelevant that anyone who willfully endanger people in another state,” Murphy said tweeted. “It’s also irrelevant that Rep Matt Putz – I mean Rep Matt Gaetz – would participate in this. What a jerk.”
“Matt,” said Murphy, “You are not welcome in New Jersey, and frankly, I never want you to come back to this state.”
Gaetz, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, hit back at Murphy: “You’re going to regret that tweet when you move to Florida like the rest of New Jersey,” he said. tweeted.
He also appeared to be calling on people to protest the restrictions in New Jersey.
—Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) December 5, 2020
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, where the event was to take place for the first time, called Gaetz “irresponsible” and said his actions “encourage people to break the laws.”
“They violated New Jersey laws and Governor Murphy is right to point out,” Cuomo said.
The New York Young Republicans Club has fled to New Jersey after a Manhattan venue reportedly refused to host the event.
Gavin Wax, the chairman of the organization, said it was always planned to host the event at the New Jersey restaurant, the Daily Beast reported.
“New Jersey has much more lax rules. It’s been in New Jersey for a while,” Wax said. “We saw that we could do 150 people in New Jersey versus 50 people in New York and it made more sense.”
But a spokesperson for Parc Maritime told several outlets that the event was a “last minute reservation”.
In addition to Gaetz, James O’Keefe, the founder of the far-right activist group Project Veritas, attended the event.
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