Philadelphia Mayor Shamed After Eating Indoors In Maryland While His City Remains Shut Down

In yet another example of liberal hypocrisy, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is being shamed by his city – whose restaurants he has barred from operating – and forced to apologize after he was spotted dining indoors in Maryland, without a mask, while his city remains shut down. Restaurant owners in the city are irate. 

A photograph of Kenney went viral early this week and the mayor’s office later confirmed that Kenney was visiting a “friend’s restaurant” on Sunday, according to ABC Philadelphia. 

Well known Philadelphia restauranteur Marc Vetri unloaded on the mayor on Instagram, writing: “Glad you’re enjoying indoor dining with no social distancing or mask wearing in Maryland tonight while restaurants here in Philly close, suffer and fight for every nickel just to survive. I guess all your press briefings and your narrative of unsafe indoor dining don’t apply to you. Thank you for clearing it all up for us tonight.”

 

 

 

 

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Hi @phillymayor !!! Glad you’re enjoying indoor dining with no social distancing or mask wearing in Maryland tonight while restaurants here in Philly close, suffer and fight for every nickel just to survive. I guess all your press briefings and your narrative of unsafe indoor dining don’t apply to you. Thank you for clearing it all up for us tonight. 🙏

A post shared by marcvetri (@marcvetri) on Aug 30, 2020 at 6:08pm PDT

 

Another Philadelphia bar operator commented on a Facebook post about the photo of Kenney: “This took some balls. This f*cker should be flagged from every bar and restaurant in the city.”

Meanwhile, indoor dining in Philadelphia isn’t set to resume until September 8, with several restrictions and a 25% capacity limit. Kenney has “staunchly stood by” his decision to wait until that date to resume indoor dining. Kenney said earlier this month: “We need to follow what we are being asked to do by the health department. I beg you to follow the rules.”

The mayor’s office commented on the photo:

“The mayor went to Maryland earlier today to patronize a restaurant owned by a friend of his. For what it’s worth, he also went to Rouge to enjoy outdoor dining in Philly on the way home. He looks forward to expanding indoor dining locally next week.

Throughout the pandemic the Mayor has consistently deferred to the guidance of the Health Commissioner, who in this case felt strongly about waiting until Sept. 8 to resume indoor dining. If elected officials at the federal level had similarly deferred to health experts over the past five months, this might not even be an issue by now.

Of course we understand the frustrations of local restaurant owners who have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic. But there are 782 total cases in the county the mayor briefly visited, compared to over 33,000 cases in Philadelphia. Drastically different circumstances.”

But the backlash was so prominent, Kenney eventually took to Twitter to offer up a mea culpa:

Restaurant owners are among the hardest hit by the pandemic. I’m sorry if my decision hurt those who’ve worked to keep their businesses going under difficult circumstances. Looking forward to reopening indoor dining soon and visiting my favorite spots. https://t.co/Ki3lIZV8i4

— Jim #MaskUpPHL Kenney (@PhillyMayor) August 31, 2020

“I’m sorry if my decision hurt those who’ve worked to keep their businesses going under difficult circumstances,” he wrote.