You are reading

VIDEO: Whitestone Republican Club Hosts Maskless Holiday Party

Party-goers including council candidate Vickie Palladino (front) at the Whitestone Republican Club holiday party on Dec. 9 (Matt Binder/ Twitter)

Dec. 22, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Members of the Whitestone Republican Club ditched masks and social distancing rules at an indoor holiday party earlier this month, video shows.

Party-goers — including Northeast Queens City Council candidate Vickie Palladino — flouted COVID-19 rules when they formed a 15-person conga line at the holiday party on Dec. 9, a video posted to Twitter shows.

Roughly 50 people are shown either dancing or seated at tables at the holiday party. Just a single person can be seen wearing a mask in the video posted by journalist Matt Binder.

Neither attendees who took to the dance floor to boogie to the Bee Gees or those seated at round tables wore masks, the video shows.

The Republican club hosted the holiday party inside Il Bacco Restaurant in Little Neck. The restaurant made the news this summer when its owners sued Governor Andrew Cuomo over his shutdown of indoor dining.

Indoor dining was permitted in New York City — at 25 percent capacity — at the time of the holiday party on Dec. 9.

The maskless conga line doesn’t appear to be a one-off during the party. Other photos and videos of the gathering posted to social media also show attendees failing to wear masks that help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Palladino, who led the conga line, is running to replace Council Member Paul Vallone, who is term-limited.

Neither Palladino or the Whitestone Republican Club returned a request for comment by the time of publication.

The video posted to Twitter has more than two million views.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Southeast Queens leaders endorse Mark Levine for NYC comptroller

Apr. 17, 2025 By Athena Dawson

Cook cited Levine’s experience and problem-solving skills as a reason for her vote of confidence. “Mark is the clear choice to be our City’s next comptroller, and I am proud to back him today and every day. He has the experience and creative problem-solving skills to tackle some of our city’s most pressing issues while protecting New Yorkers from the dangers of Trump and the federal government,”  she shared in a statement. 

Op-ed: The power of representation in healthcare

Apr. 17, 2025 By Dr. Ifeanyi Oguagha

As physicians of color at Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center (JPAFHC), we regularly witness how representation in healthcare can save lives. Our patients – who, like us, are predominantly people of color – walk through our doors not only with medical concerns but also often carrying the weight of generations of inequities that have shaped their health outcomes.

Teen robbed of necklace at gunpoint while waiting for R train at Elmhurst subway: NYPD

Police from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst and Transit District 20 are looking for a gunman who allegedly robbed a teenager at the Grand Avenue-Newtown subway station.

The 18-year-old victim was waiting for an R train at around 2 p.m. on Friday, April 10, when a stranger approached him, lifted his sweatshirt to show he had a firearm tucked into his waistband, and demanded the victim’s necklace. The teenager surrendered his necklace, and the armed robber fled the station onto Queens Boulevard at Broadway.