New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, received a chorus of boos at a concert on his home turf Saturday night.
Brian Kirk, the lead singer of Brian Kirk & the Jirks, invited Murphy onstage, but the moment quickly soured at the Red Rock Tap & Grill in Monmouth County, just two miles away from the governor’s waterfront mansion.
Video posted on Twitter by Matt Rooney, the founder and editor-in-chief of SaveJersey.com, showed Murphy hugging the band members while the crowd loudly booed.
Kirk broke his embrace of Murphy to scold fans.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (Matt Rooney)
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“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, what did I tell you guys?” Kirk said, pointing his finger at the crowd.
“Hey, listen to me,” he continued. “Listen to me, he didn’t want to hear that. He’s a buddy of mine. This is not about politics. He’s a friend of mine. Don’t do that. Out of respect for my friend, don’t do that.”
Murphy’s administration imposed multiple restrictions on breweries last year, including limiting food distribution and the number of private events they can host onsite. A bipartisan bill that passed both the state Assembly and Senate last month to lift the restrictions has been sitting on Murphy’s desk, but he has yet to signal whether he will sign it.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife Tammy Murphy arrive for the State Dinner in honor of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, at the White House on April 26, 2023. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The New Jersey Brewers Association has expressed fears that the continued regulations will force breweries out of business or across state lines.
The website for the Red Rock bar, where Murphy was booed, currently asks for customers’ patience due to being short-staffed.
“Thank you for your patience,” it reads. “Our kitchen is short-staffed due to an unprecedented labor shortage in the service industry.”
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Murphy also came under fire last week after signing a bill giving a massive tax break to Danish offshore wind developer Orsted for the first of two energy projects it plans to place in the waters off the Jersey Shore.
Neither the company nor Democratic lawmakers listed the value of the tax break, but a Republican state senator, Edward Durr, put it at nearly $1 billion.
Former boxer Vladimir Klitschko talks with Gov. Phil Murphy at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, on Feb. 19, 2023. (Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)
The bill signing came one day after Orsted’s Ocean Wind I project received clearance from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to begin construction on a wind farm 13 to 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City and Ocean City.
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Kirk and Murphy’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
