When the Whitestone Republican Club held a holiday party at Il Bacco, an Italian restaurant in Little Neck, Queens, on Dec. 9, more than a dozen people formed a conga line as part of the revelry, shimmying through a glitzy banquet room.

No one in that line wore a mask.

Video of the conga line was shared on Twitter on Monday by Matt Binder, a journalist who said it was initially posted on a private local Facebook group. The video showed the conga line snaking past a D.J. booth with a spinning disco ball as the Bee Gees blasted in the background. A man hoisting a Trump 2020 campaign flag led the dance before Vickie Paladino, a staunch conservative who is the club’s president and a City Council candidate, took over.

The video, which circulated on social media this week, has led to an outcry that culminated with criticism from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and an investigation by the State Liquor Authority.

“Covid conga lines are not smart, that’s my official position,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

“There will be significant fines for this incident, and we’re looking at both the group that held the event and the establishment that hosted it,” said Mitch Schwartz, a spokesman for New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio.

Bill Crowley, a spokesman for the State Liquor Authority, confirmed on Tuesday that the agency was investigating Il Bacco. Mr. Crowley said that the state has suspended 279 liquor licenses for violations of coronavirus-related regulations.

Thomas Paladino, Ms. Paladino’s son and her campaign strategy director, said that the restaurant and the club took precautions, like providing hand sanitizer and taking temperatures at the door.

“We’re not the mask police,” Mr. Paladino said on Tuesday. “We’re all grown adults, and if somebody chooses to put a mask on, they can put a mask on.”

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