A Massachusetts Republican Party leader has voiced his regret about attending a maskless White House Hanukkah party this month, which he now blames for his hospitalization with severe COVID-19. Tom Mountain, the vice chairman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, was rushed to a hospital three days after the Dec. 9 event, where most attendees shunned masks. “When I went down to Washington, D.C. for the White House Hanukkah event, I was perfectly fine,” the 60-year-old told WJAR. “And three days later after that event, I was in the hospital… ready to be put on a lifesaving ventilator.” Mountain told the local network that he felt “politically and morally obligated to go” to the event, but is now filled with regret. Mountain told the Boston Globe: “I didn’t listen to the warnings of my own family, and now I’m paying the price.” He’s now recovering at home after being hospitalized twice.