PROTESTERS gathered outside of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and hung hair dryers in her trees after her trip to a California hair salon sparked nationwide outrage.
More than a dozen women donned hair curlers and plastic covers as they stood outside of Pelosi’s Pacific Heights home on Thursday, according to local station KRON.
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The demonstration comes after Pelosi was captured on video inside a San Fransisco hair salon not wearing a mask, an incident the House Speaker has referred to as a “set-up.”
Protesters expressed frustration at Pelosi for insisting that businesses remain shut down in California amid the coronavirus pandemic, yet choosing to visit a salon herself and violate mask mandates.
“What she has done is a slap in the face of not just a salon owner, but every woman, every man, every person who’s unemployed in the state of California, who lost their jobs and their livelihoods, many of whom are my friends,” one protester told KRON.
Pelosi’s salon visit sparked a huge amount of backlash, with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany playing the video footage at a press briefing and slamming the House Speaker as a hypocrite.
“Apparently the rules do not apply to Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” she said.
“She wants small businesses to stay shut down but only reopen for her convenience. Do as I say not as I do, says Nancy Pelosi,” she added.
Pelosi has said that she takes responsibility for “falling for a set up” at the salon.
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times when they said we’re able to accommodate people one person at a time,” she said after footage of her salon visit was shared widely.
Pelosi maintained that her regular stylist who comes to her home was unavailable so she contacted the salon in question, who said one customer at a time was OK.
The owner of the salon, Erica Kious, has denied that she knew Pelosi was coming into the business, dismissing the idea that she set the House Speaker up, despite claims to the contrary from her employees.
In an appearance on Fox News, Kious explained that, “[Pelosi] had called the stylist, or her assistant did, and had made the appointment so the appointment was already booked, so there was no way I could have set that up.”
“I’ve had a camera system in there for five years. I mean I didn’t go in there and turn cameras on as soon as she walking in and set her up, so that’s absolutely false.”
“Just to see her come in, especially her not wearing a mask, that’s what really got me,” she later added. “This isn’t political. It’s the fact she came in and didn’t have a mask on. If she is in there comfortably then why are we shut down?”
The stylist who worked on Pelosi’s hair, however, released a statement saying that Kious did approve the House Speaker’s appointment – and she took particular interest in it when he called her to confirm.
“Mr. DeNardo has worked at eSalon for approximately six (6) years and regularly communicates with the salon owner, Erica Kious. In fact, Mr. DeNardo received advance approval from Ms. Kious the day prior to the appointment during a telephone discussion on August 29, 2020 at 9:26 pm, wherein Mr. DeNardo advised Ms. Kious that he would not proceed with Speaker Pelosi’s appointment without Ms. Kious’ authorization,” the statement said.
“Ms. Kious took special interest in the appointment during this telephone call, wherein she made several vitriolic and incendiary comments about Speaker Pelosi and her purported responsibility for temporarily suspending operations of Ms. Kious’ business, despite such orders actually being put into place not by Speaker Pelosi, but by Governor Gavin Newsome and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.”
“Ultimately, Ms. Kious authorized Mr. DeNardo to proceed with Speaker Pelosi’s appointment,” it continued.
President Trump has also taken several shots at Speaker Pelosi since the scandalous salon visit, even tweeting that the salon owner should take over as speaker of the house.
“Nancy Pelosi says she got ‘set up’ by a Beauty Parlor owner,” Trump tweeted.
“Maybe the Beauty Parlor owner should be running the House of Representatives instead of Crazy Nancy?”
