Server fired after posting video of maskless Nebraska governor at bar
A Nebraska server who filmed the now-viral video of Gov. Pete Ricketts maskless at a bar on election night has been fired for breaking company policy.
Karina Montanez, a single mother, was working the party at DJ’s Dugout in Bellevue when she spotted the governor with a group of people, none of whom are wearing masks.
“Hey, Pete, where’s your mask? Where’s your mask, Pete?” Montanez said in the video she posted on Twitter on Nov. 3. “What are you doing, Pete? We’re in a pandemic, Pete.”
The video got little attention until this week, when it got picked up by Nebraska state senator Megan Hunt and hundreds of other people. As of Thursday morning, it has more than 21,000 views on Twitter.
Then Montanez got fired.
“I wasn’t bashing the restaurant,” she told KPTM. “Yes, the video was recorded in the restaurant but the purpose of the video was to show people how our governor is about while we’re in this pandemic where people are literally dying.”
The CEO of the DJ’s Dugout, Sunni Renner, said Montanez was fired for breaking company policy that bans employees from using their phones while on the clock.
“Although the social media post is believed to be political in nature, DJ’s Dugout respects each of its employee’s political affiliations, beliefs, and activities permitted under law; however, these political affiliations, beliefs, and activities do not represent those of DJ’s Dugout,” Renner said in a statement to KPTM.
A spokesperson for Ricketts claimed the governor wore his mask into the bar, then removed it once inside, where patrons are not required to keep them on while seated.
